


Yuezheng Motel

by charcolor



Category: Vocaloid
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Survival, fyi everyone listed after longya in the character tags is a minor character, most of them only show up in the epilogue., the vibes of this are pretty influenced by twdg so....
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:07:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 31,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26199832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charcolor/pseuds/charcolor
Summary: After the small town of Yenyu, a popular spot for weekend vacations, is destroyed by unprecedented riots and fires that last for days, Yuezheng Longya takes ten people refuge in his private motel to make a fun little game out of survival.
Relationships: DAINA/Ruby (Vocaloid), Gumi/Lily (Vocaloid), Kaito/Hiyama Kiyoteru in background, anon & kanon (Vocaloid)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	1. Driven Into Refuge

**Author's Note:**

> hi! before you read this story there's a few things i wanna mention  
> -not all of the major characters die but some do. i won't say publicly which ones die (cuz you know. spoilers.) but i understand it might be really distressing sometimes to have certain characters you love killed off. if you want to make sure a certain character doesn't die, you can ask me somewhere like tumblr where i can respond privately. if you want i can also tell you if they survive but also go through the Real Rough Shit (tm)  
> -i will include trigger warnings at the beginning of chapters they apply to BUT there are also trigger warnings that sort of apply to the story as a whole, or at least a significant portion of it. these are: death/murder, fire/arson, physical violence, medical talk (not super complex), emotional manipulation, and disordered eating/body shaming. i might add more if i decide it's necessary but anything else will be warned for in specific chapters they occur in.
> 
> thanks! i hope you enjoy the story :)!

Gumi's head was buzzing, sweat coating her skin as the flames followed her out of what remained of the gift shop. She dared glance back for just a second, and sure enough, fire had taken it, its charred silhouette already beginning to crumble. 

Just a few minutes ago...just a few minutes ago, everything was fine. It was mostly empty, save for the cashier and one or two other customers, some pop music was playing quietly from the speakers, and Gumi and her fiancée were examining cute animal figurines. Then, too quickly, a scream rang out, the fire was crawling through the store, her fiancée grabbed her hand and pulled her out to see that the fire was everywhere and it was only growing stronger and deadlier.

"Agh, what the _fuck?"_ Gumi was snapped out of her daze by the blonde woman in front of her, who quickly grabbed her hand again. "Who fuckin' _barricaded_ this road?" Lily turned her head to look at Gumi with wide blue eyes. "Babe, I don't think there's any other way out of here. We're gonna have to try to make it over that."

The barricade was a pile of broken bicycles and a couple of smashed cars, and some lopsided road signs scattered around. If they were to try to climb over that mess, they would probably cut themselves on metal or broken glass, which was dangerous, but it was much better than burning to death or getting killed by whoever was instigating this destruction. Gumi had no doubt that her strong fiancée could pull it off, but Gumi knew she didn't have the same physical prowess.

"If I don't make it over," Gumi said as they approached the barricade, "don't come back for me."

"Why the fuck not?" Lily demanded, stepping on top of one of the bicycles and reaching to pull herself on top of a car. "You think I'm gonna just leave you behind?"

"No. But I don't want to leave Ryuto alone."

Ryuto was Gumi's little brother. He lived with her and Lily, but this weekend they'd entrusted him to look after himself on his own. Of course, as a ten year old, being home alone for one weekend was much more bearable than being home alone forever.

"He's just a kid!" Gumi told her, climbing up on a separate car. "He needs at least one of us to take care of him. So if I--"

"Like hell if you don't make it!" Lily growled. "Let's get moving! We'll be fine, okay?"

Of course, that was when Gumi lost her footing. The way the car was tipped over made it too difficult to keep her balance, and foolishly, she hadn't considered that at all. She yelped for just a second before she fell against the metal of a bicycle. It hit her face, and she felt blood pool in her nose right away.

"Gumi!"

Gumi clenched her teeth as she moved her aching neck to look into Lily's horrified gaze. "Just go!" she yelled. "Get to Ryuto! Go home, get to Ryuto! I'll get out on my own!"

She didn't wait to see Lily run off, didn't wait to see the tears in her eyes fall, before lowering her head again. This wasn't any time to think about the pain she was in. She had to pull herself up and--

 _"Ahhh!"_ She couldn't help but squeal pathetically at the hot pain shooting through her, and she looked back to see that her leg had ended up through a broken car window. If she kept pulling, the glass would mangle it, and she wouldn't be able to even use it to run away.

If she could pull herself closer to the car, she could try to remove the glass. But that would take far too long, and the fire was only getting closer, the smoke was starting to choke her, her eyes watered as her pounding head grew heavier and the world started to dim...

* * *

"Miku? That's you, right?"

Before Luka could explain herself, Miku's shrill voice cried out from the phone, muffled by the static of movement and panicked breathing. "Luka, what's going on over there? Are you okay? Did anyone hurt you?"

"I'm fine! I'm fine. Make sure the twins know I'm fine. I'm just kinda held up here. I'll probably get home later than I thought."

"I know there's rioting, Luka! It's all over my Twitter feed! Riots and fires! Did anyone hurt you?"

"No one hurt me! I'm still trying to figure out a way out of this. I might have to take shelter somewhere."

Luka was pretty cornered. Where there wasn't fire, there were too many people scurrying around for her to push through. Some of them seemed to be among the rioters; they had things like knives and gas masks and flamethrowers. Luka didn't want to interact with them. She asked one earlier why this was happening, what warranted setting this peaceful town ablaze, and they threatened her. "Don't ask any questions if you don't wanna get cut, you weak bitch." If Luka had to guess, this was more of an attack, maybe bordering on terrorism, than a riot...but in any case, she didn't want to risk getting hurt directly when she could probably just escape harm's way. 

At least, as soon as other survivors cleared out, and as long as Luka hadn't been burnt to a crisp at that point.

"Can't you call the fire department or something?" Miku pleaded.

"A fire truck isn't gonna make it here, Miku. At least, not until it dies down a little. Besides, they might bring cops, and I think that'll only spark more violence and put more people in danger."

"Oh...wait, wait, wait, Luka. I just checked Twitter again. People are saying that it's safe in the motel."

"The motel? The motel burned down already--"

"No, not your motel, the fancy one. It's called Yuezheng Motel or something. Do you know about it?"

It sounded familiar...Luka thought she saw a sign for it earlier, but not the building itself. She didn't remember where. She'd have to ask others about it, because there was no time to look up a map of town or anything. Her phone was running low on battery, and the clearing she'd found was only getting smaller as the flames closed in.

"Alright, Miku," she said quickly, "I can't stay on for too long, my phone's dying. Make yourself and the twins something for dinner, tell them I'll be home a day or two later than I planned. Don't worry about me, I'll find a place. Bye."

"Luka--"

She hung up and shoved the phone into the pocket of her pants. No more time to waste. Luka still spotted a way out the the flames, still full of people. She could only choose between waiting and dying in the fire or trying to shove through them. She hated to be so rude, but politeness wasn't worth dying over.

"Hey!" Luka shouted as she ran over to the closest people. "Which way is Yuezheng Motel?"

"I don't fuckin' know!" the man scoffed at her. "It's probably burned down and killed everyone in it, forget about it. Let me through."

"Why do you wanna go there?" a woman asked, elbowing her as she made her way through. "Just get moving and get out of the town!"

If they weren't being helpful, at least they were easier to plow through than Luka thought. She made it to a space where she had some room to look around for any surviving signs or street maps or anything of the sort.

"Luka? Megurine Luka?"

She almost didn't hear the voice calling her name over the chaos, and she turned toward it to see a familiar man with glasses against what looked like a pile of broken cars and bikes waving at her. Luka didn't waste any time running over to him.

"Kiyoteru?" This was the boyfriend of Luka's friend Kaito--well, more like her friend Meiko's friend Kaito that Luka also hung out with if she had to. "Is Kaito with you?"

"Got separated. He texted me and said he made it out, but my phone's dead now so I can't talk to him anymore. Gosh, I'm lucky to see you."

Kiyoteru's glasses looked broken, and he wasn't standing upright. "Are you hurt?" Luka asked.

"No, no, I'm fine. But I just found this girl stuck here, she's passed out, and I don't know what to do, I can't just leave her to die..."

Luka inched closer and spotted some vibrant green hair. The girl was laid out against a bicycle with blood streaking her face and her legs, one of which seemed to be trapped in a broken car window.

It made Luka cringe in pain just looking at it.

"Right, you're right. Let's try to get her out of there."

Luka climbed around to the other side of the car, and Kiyoteru followed. The glass around the girl's leg was tricky. If Luka moved the leg slightly the wrong way, the glass shards would probably dig right into it. 

"I don't see any other option," Kiyoteru said. "At least, not one that would be quick enough."

Luka looked behind her. If this girl was trying to escape, it would be useless now. Fire was blocking the road, and it looked like people were starting to pile up another barricade of wrecked vehicles. If they could get her out of this mess and keep her alive through it, they would have to bring her back the way they came and find another way out, or find refuge in Yuezheng Motel.

"We'll have to pull her out and hope for the best," Kiyoteru decided. "Can you help, Luka?"

"Yeah, yeah. Let's do it quick."

Luka grabbed the girl's thigh and Kiyoteru grabbed the upper shin, and they yanked. Luka instinctively squeezed her eyes shut as soon as she saw the leg move from the window. It didn't take too long to get it loose, so Luka quickly opened her eyes again. Sure enough, the girl's leg was covered in thick, dark blood.

"I'm so sorry," she muttered. The girl was light enough for Luka to lift into her arms, so she scooped her up and quickly made her way back around the barricade. She looked over to Kiyoteru behind her. "You know Yuezheng Motel? Where it is? I think it's a safe place."

"Is it? I suppose there can't be too much harm checking. Follow me."

As Luka followed close behind him, she looked down at the face of the girl in her arms. Her lips were parted just enough for her teeth to be visible, and if Luka lowered her own head a little, she could hear faint breathing.

This girl was pretty lucky to be alive at all right now.

"Oh, wow...you're right, Luka, it's still standing."

Luka looked back up. The sign was a bit charred, but the words _Yuezheng Motel_ were still visible. There were still stairs leading up to the front doors, and a couple of people were rushing inside right now.

"No time to waste." Luka hurried forward. "Let's get ourselves and this girl in there."

* * *

Meanwhile, a man stood at his window, looking down at the people running around among the chaos, a phone to his ear.

"You did great. Keep it up, will you? Find some more people to help, if you need to. Things are going to go just perfectly."

The person on the other line responded, but the man tuned it out. Seeing people pour in through the doors of his safe haven...he smiled to himself, and closed his eyes for a moment.

"Right...this will be an incredible opportunity for everyone. All we have to do is wait and watch what unfolds..."


	2. Having Sown the Seeds of Distrust

"How long do you think this is gonna last?"

"Man...it can't be much longer, right? Don't riots and shit die out after a few hours?"

"Don't cuss, there's a kid here."

"Me? I'm not a kid, I'm seventeen."

Gumi's vision was still dark and fuzzy, and so was her memory. _Who are these people? Where is this? What happened to make me pass out like that?_

A pang throbbed from her leg, and that uncovered some of the memory. The window her leg was stuck in, telling Lily to escape, the whole town suddenly being in flames. 

"We can't just stay cooped up here forever. We gotta get food and stuff."

"Don't motels have breakfast to serve for their guests?"

"That's hotels, Anon. This is a motel."

"They're the same thing."

_A motel...? Is this a dream? Was that a dream? No, my leg still hurts, it's real, but..._

Gumi blinked open her eyes. It was dark and blurry, but she could make out some things. She was lying on a carpet of some sort in a dim room, only orange fire in the windows providing light. Some people were sitting by the walls. She couldn't focus enough to see their faces, but some bright hair colors stood out--two people with reddish-blond hair, one with light red hair, one with light pink hair, one with ginger hair...

"Hey."

She felt a nudge on her shoulder, and tilted her head up to see a face framed by pink hair gazing down at her through blue eyes.

"How are you doing?" the woman asked, in a calm and cool voice. "It looked like your leg was hurt really bad."

Gumi blinked again, and lifted her hand to her face to rub the heavy confusion from her eyes. "Where's Lily...? Did you see her?"

"I don't know. I'm sorry. We didn't see anyone else with you. Can you sit up?"

Gumi stretched her arms out and planted her hands on the floor behind her to push herself up to a sitting position. Now she saw her legs in front of her, and the gauze stained red wrapped around her wound.

"I tried to clean it up for you," the woman explained. "I was lucky enough to have some first aid on me. I don't know if I got all the glass out, though."

It just now clicked for Gumi. This woman rescued her.

"What's your name?" Gumi asked.

"Oh, right, I guess I should tell you that. I'm Luka."

Gumi back up against the wall beside Luka and wrapped her arms around her. "Thank you...thank you for helping me."

After a second of silence, it occurred to Gumi that Luka might be uncomfortable with this sudden show of affection, and she quickly pulled away. "Sorry, sorry, I..."

"It's okay. My friend Kiyoteru helped, he was the one who found you, actually. He's over there."

Gumi followed the finger Luka pointed to a man standing at one of the windows, his back turned so Gumi couldn't see his face. The light of the flames outside outlined his silhouette and shined on his dark brown hair. He looked pretty normal compared to most other people in the room.

"I'm Gumi," Gumi told Luka. "I was trying to escape with my fiancée after this started, that's when I got stuck."

"That's Lily?"

"Yeah. I think she made it out. But I don't think I can text her to ask."

"Why's that?"

Gumi patted her hands around her shorts just to confirm her suspicions. "My phone is gone."

"Oh, that sucks," Luka sighed. "I'd lend you my phone, but it's dead."

At the sound of shoes against the floor, they looked up to see Kiyoteru's approach. He had a friendly smile, and he adjusted his glasses as he knelt down to be at Gumi's eye level. "How are you feeling? Your leg looked hurt really badly."

"Still hurts," Gumi answered, brushing a finger back and forth against the gauze. "Thank you for helping me."

Luka gestured to her. "Kiyoteru, this is Gumi. She was here with her fiancée and they got separated."

Kiyoteru nodded. "Ah...like me and Kaito got separated."

"Lily made it out, though." Gumi almost added "I think," but these people seemed nice and they were already worried enough about her wound.

"Kaito, too. I'm very thankful for that." Kiyoteru looked back at the others by the windows. "I spent some time learning their names. I have a feeling we'll all be cooped up together for a while."

"That's good thinking," Luka said. "Do you think you could tell us, too?"

Kiyoteru nodded and started recounting his findings, as Gumi observed everyone from afar.

The two girls with reddish-blonde hair were twins. The girl with short hair was Anon, and her sister with a long ponytail was Kanon. They'd apparently been here with their parents, but they, too, got separated. Anon acted much more carefree about the whole situation than Kanon, who kept glaring at her and telling her off.

"You're so _dense,"_ Kanon grumbled. "Do you even care that people are _dying?"_

"Of course I do," Anon replied, patting her head. "But I can handle it better, 'cause I'm the older twin."

The pale woman with long ginger hair was named Daina, and the woman with pink hair holding hands with her was Ruby. They were apparently married, and had moved to Japan from the United States fairly recently. Fortunately, Gumi was fluent in English and could perfectly understand their conversation.

"Fuck," sighed Daina, "I was really looking forward to--"

"Hey, I said don't cuss," Ruby gently interrupted.

"Okay, yeah, sorry. I was really looking forward to having dinner out in town tonight. I guess we'll be stuck eating motel food."

"It might not be that bad." Ruby kissed her on the cheek. "It's better than starving."

The teenage boy with blond hair, which was styled ridiculously enough for Gumi to wonder if he was a cosplayer, was named Yohio. He was apparently both Swedish and Japanese, but he spoke English well enough to speak directly to Daina and Ruby.

"I'm seventeen," he reminded them, though seemingly a little too quietly for them to notice. "I can say fuck, too, you know."

The man with light reddish hair and bandaids on his face was Akira, although occasionally he called himself Arsloid for some reason. The best explanation Gumi could think of on the spot was that he went to Britain, went by a name like Lloyd, and got called an arse. Sure enough, he did give off an asshole vibe.

He looked down at Daina and Ruby. "You on your period or something?"

Gumi couldn't see anything to indicate that, but Ruby immediately crossed her legs tightly. "Fuck's wrong with you, dude?"

"Oh," Daina muttered, _"you_ can say fuck?"

Akira shook his head and waved a hand. "Nah, I'm kidding. I don't care."

From the looks of it, none of them had wanted to bother with Gumi or Luka yet, which was fine, but it did bug Luka a tiny bit that no one else appeared to care for Gumi's injury. In any case, they didn't have time for that now.

"Hello, everyone."

Everyone looked to the source of the greeting. A young man with hair split into black and white, tied in a thin braid around his neck. He was wearing some pretty uptight looking clothes, a vest and tie over a white polo shirt and slacks. He looked like a pretentious asshole already.

"I'm glad you were able to take shelter here," the man said. "I'm Yuezheng Longya, I own and run this place. Normally it's exclusive, but I'm happy to shelter you for as long as this whole thing lasts."

Luka wanted to ask if maybe he had a phone she could borrow, or at least a charger, but something about his aura made her too cautious to say a word.

"I think we can make something good come out of this," Longya continued. "I have a good supply of food I can provide you with, and I have room keys that I can give you so you have your own private quarters. What else..." He tapped his chin. "I'll have to keep the outside doors locked, for safety. And I'm sorry to say, the electricity's cut out. The water is fine, though, so you can use the bathrooms no problem."

"What's the good thing coming out of this?" Daina asked, a very impatient shade in her voice.

"Ah, right." Longya clasped his hands together. "What I want to suggest is this: make a game out of it. A sort of survival game. Figure out how to ration out food, plan out your days, and keep a cool head during all this."

"Uh, sir?" Ruby raised her hand slightly. "I don't know if this is gonna last that long. The rioting, I mean. It's only been, like, an hour or two."

Longya sighed and stared at her for a second too long. "I understand where you're coming from, but this isn't going away soon. The rioters might even try to bring this place down. I do have protections in place, but you could incorporate that into your game, if you like."

"We're not playin' a fuckin' game, dude," Kanon snapped. "We're just wanting to not die in a fire. What kinda _game_ is it supposed to be, anyway? What're your rules?"

"That's up to you. It's only a suggestion. I do really think you should figure out how to ration the food, though." Longya turned back around, pulling out a set of keys. "I'll bring you the food and room keys now, and then I'll be back in my own quarters. Don't be afraid to get to know each other!"

He walked back up the stairs, and everyone in the lobby turned to each other again.

"I think a game might be fun," Anon said with an innocent smile.

Kanon groaned and rolled her eyes. "Oh my God, Anon, you're too dumb to live. I'm pretty sure he's holding us prisoner."

Anon shrugged. "He doesn't seem too bad. He's protecting us from the fire and giving us food and privacy, I think that's nice of him."

"Nah, nah, I don't trust anyone making light of shit like this."

"You're too stubborn." Anon stretched out her arms. "Is it 'cause you're younger than me?"

"Jesus Christ. I don't care if you think you're the older twin. We're not kids."

"Huh? I _know_ I'm the older twin."

"You really don't."

Their disagreement was interrupted by the sound of a bag hitting the floor and a jingle of keys. Longya had returned with the promised items. He set them down, smiled without a word, and returned upstairs.

Kanon glared right back at Anon. "You see it, right? He's being a creep." She looked around at the others. "Does anyone else think he's being a creep?"

"Be nice." Akira took some strides over to the big sack on the floor. "You shouldn't be jumping to conclusions. He's the reason you're not fucking dead right now."

"Yeah, Kanon," Anon added, elbowing her sister with a smirk. "Be nice!"

Kanon groaned again and tightly crossed her arms. "You're _so_ immature."

Akira cleared his throat. "Okay, so...let's assume we'll be here a week. Kind of a long shot, but let's assume that. So I'm gonna divide this up for ten people for a week. But, actually, wait, I don't want anyone hogging the food. So I'll give everyone their food three times--"

"Wait, wait, wait." Luka walked over to him with her arms crossed. "Why are _you_ the sole person handling food?"

"'Cause I'm pretty sure I'm the oldest. I'm twenty-seven. So I have more responsibility and experience than all of you."

"That doesn't mean shit," Luka argued. "We barely know you. We can feed ourselves, we're all capable."

"You think you can trust people not to eat more than they should if you can't trust me to help everyone survive?"

Daina spoke up. "Yeah, uh, I'm with the asshole on this one. We should have someone regulate the food so we can keep eating."

"Wouldn't Longya just give us more?" Luka pointed out.

"I don't think he could. He can't exactly go grocery shopping right now."

Akira patted Luka's head. "Sit down, okay? I'll handle this."

Luka swatted his hand away and glared before briskly walking back to Gumi and Kiyoteru.

"I don't trust him," she sighed, slumping to the floor against the wall. "But I guess we have no choice."

"If we really need more food," Kiyoteru said, "we could probably just take it. But I think we'll be fine."

"God..." Luka shook her head and rubbed her temples. "This is so weird. I hate it. I just want to get back home to my family. They're just kids, they're probably worried sick."

"Miku and the twins?" Kiyoteru asked. "They must be. Kaito mentioned to me that Miku cries a lot."

"Well, that's one thing he's right about," Luka mused. She turned to look to her other side, and Gumi was hugging her legs, gazing down. "Hey, um, are you--"

"I don't like this either," Gumi said quietly. "It's too...vague, too implausible, you know? This feels like the start of a horror movie. I think Kanon's right, I think we are just prisoners. And that man upstairs wants to hurt us. I don't get it. I don't know what we did."

Luka rubbed her neck. She wasn't good at consolation, especially when she had the same kinds of feelings. "Well, it's only the start," she tried to point out. "There's time to get used to it and figure out if there's something more to this."

Gumi lifted her head, and immediately was struck in the face with a small metallic object. Luka glared right to the source. It was that kid Yohio.

"What's your _problem?"_ Luka scolded.

"Um, uh!" Yohio was holding a bunch of keys in his hands and glanced around nervously. "Sorry, um, I don't know! I just didn't wanna interrupt or anything--"

"So you _threw_ a _key_ at her?"

She felt a warm hand on her shoulder. "Relax," Kiyoteru suggested from close behind her. "He's probably worked up about this whole thing. Let's just ignore it and take our room keys."

She supposed he was right. Yohio was already annoying, but it wouldn't help anyone to yell at him right now or hold a big grudge against him.

Yohio seemed pretty sheepish, too, quietly shuffling over to hand keys over to Luka and Kiyoteru. Kiyoteru smiled and said "thank you," and Luka muttered an echo of his words. She looked back to Gumi, who was cradling the key in her hands.

"Are you okay, Gumi?"

Gumi nodded. "It's not too heavy. It only hurt a little bit." She used her hands and her good leg to push herself up off the floor. "I think I want to lie down for a little while."

It had to be hard to walk like that. Luka quickly got back to her feet to say, "Do you need any help?"

"No, it's fine." Gumi briefly flashed a small smile before walking, slightly limping, over to the hallway. "I'll talk to you later, Luka."

Luka waved, trying to return the smile, then looked down at her own key in her palm. It was engraved with what was presumably her room number, _003._ "I guess resting is a good idea. Maybe when I wake up this stuff'll be over with."

"Are you sure, Luka?" Kiyoteru scratched his neck. "Are you hungry or anything?"

"Even if I was, it doesn't matter 'cause Arsloid over there isn't going to let me eat out of his schedule or whatever." Luka shook her head. "I'm telling you, _nothing_ good is coming from him. I wouldn't be surprised if he's just trying to hoard it all for himself."

* * *

No one seemed to really notice Yuuma yet.

Well, no one except for Yohio tossing them a room key with _006_ engraved on it. It probably would be a good idea to get to that bedroom and try to rest and think a little, but Yuuma wanted to stay out in the lobby a little longer. They wanted to know more about these other people, and they could do that as long as they stayed unnoticed.

It looked like everyone else who still had a phone on them was out of battery. Yuuma still had a tiny bit left. They'd already texted their friend Mizki about the situation. They'd come here on a trip together, and ended up being separated in the riots. Mizki apparently made it out, fortunately, assuming that they were telling the truth when they texted that to Yuuma.

There wasn't much else Mizki could do for them, so it really didn't matter that Yuuma could use their phone for a few more minutes. They turned their attention to Ruby and Daina, sitting beside each other and holding hands across the room while talking to Akira.

"We met back when we lived in America," Daina explained. "We've only been living in Japan for, like...five months?"

"Five months," Ruby confirmed with a nod.

"Yeah, yeah, we moved here 'cause we wanted to be closer to our friend. After we got married."

Akira rested his chin in his hands. "How long've you been married?"

"Little over a year," Ruby answered through a smile. "We were gonna go back home to the family for the anniversary, but then we figured, we've never had our anniversary celebration in Japan before, so..."

It was interesting. Despite Akira's incredibly unlikable demeanor and Daina herself calling him an asshole, they seemed to be perfectly content just chatting with him. Maybe Daina and Ruby were both as bad as him, or he was nicer than he seemed. Yuuma liked to think they were good at judging people's personalities, but realistically, they could never know _everything_ just by watching, and it was easy to consider that they were misunderstanding something here.

"Hey!" Yuuma flinched, and realized Daina was looking directly at them. "What are you _staring_ at? Don't you have anything better to do than eavesdrop?"

Well, that game was up. Yuuma held up their hands defensively as they got to their feet. If they couldn't stay here much longer without attracting attention, the best thing to do was probably settle into their room.

Yuezheng Motel, being the polished private place it was, had an indoor hallway like in a typical hotel. The room doors and numbers lined the left wall. It wasn't long before Yuuma spotted the door marked _006._ They stuck the key in, turned it, and the door was open.

Ignoring the fire in the window, the room seemed nice. A nice double bed with white linens that was already made up, a nice dresser and two nightstands, and a small table and chairs. There was a TV, too, but of course that wasn't too useful with the power cut out.

Yuuma didn't linger on that sight for long, though. There was something much more noticeable on top of the bed, and that sparked so many more worries and questions in their train of thought.


	3. Care and Conflict

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: possible implied misogyny + mild physical violence, mention of (hypothetical) suicide

A cool hand gently stroked Gumi's skin. It was a nice feeling, but ultimately overpowered by the burning of the air on her wound. She kept her gaze away from the injury and bit her lip, trying to suppress her pained cries. She didn't want to make a fuss, espscially not with Luka trying to care for her.

"It definitely looks like it's gonna be infected," Luka determined. "I think if there were some baking soda, we could make a solution and try to get any leftover glass out of there, but I doubt we could get our hands on that."

It was a long shot, but maybe baking soda was among the food Longya had provided them with the day before. Probably not, because they couldn't be expected to eat raw baking soda, but if Longya had bought it intending to cook with it, then it was possible.

"Longya _would_ probably have some," Luka agreed when Gumi told her this. "But he's already really undermined the seriousness of this situation, and he's definitely not willing to help out besides letting us take shelter here. He wouldn't share, if we even got the chance to ask him."

That was a good point. Gumi hadn't seen Longya since he introduced himself. It wasn't likely he'd care enough to give any more aid to anyone.

"And even if Akira has it," Gumi added, "he wouldn't share either. I think maybe he really sees this as a game and he wants to win."

"That's _exactly_ what I've been thinking. I don't care if everyone thinks he's just trying to be responsible, I _do not_ trust him." Luka gently cradled Gumi's leg, humming in thought. "It's good I still have first aid stuff on me, but I don't think it can stop an infection. You might even get tetanus."

Gumi didn't really know anything about tetanus, and was too embarrassed to say so directly. "Um...it's only in my leg, I don't think it was a major artery or anything."

"I know. I think that means it would take a while to actually get tetanus, since it's far from the head, but it can still happen. Oh, unless you got vaccinated." Luka lowered the leg back down to the surface of the bed. "Did you get a tetanus vaccine when you were a kid?"

Gumi shrugged. She didn't really keep track of what she was vaccinated for. "I...probably did. I don't remember."

"You've gotta pay attention to your medical history, Gumi."

As Luka was wrapping the wound in fresh gauze, there were three short knocks on the door. Luka quickly finished up the dressing and walked over to open it. Kanon stood there, by herself.

"What are you doing here?" Luka asked. "Where's your sister?"

"She's taking a shower, or something." Kanon stroked her ponytail. "You're Luka, right? Can I just sit around here for a while? I don't trust too many other people around here."

"I...guess you can." Luka stepped aside, making way for Kanon to enter and take a seat by the small dining table. "Why here, though? You don't know me very well, either."

"'Cause you seem pretty smart. Like, relatively, at least." Kanon crossed her arms. "I swear, I love my sister, but God, she's like a brat sometimes. Even arguing with her is so embarrassing at this point, she's so immature."

Gumi sat up to face them more directly. "Did she do something wrong?"

"Well, no, she, fuckin'...I dunno." Kanon brushed some hair from her face. "She really, honestly thinks that Longya's helping us. He's just a sadistic rich freak who owns a motel. And Akira, too, like, she doesn't _like_ him, but she's still perfectly okay with his food rationing shit. As if he's not gonna pick favorites and keep the good stuff for himself." She shook her head. "She's too trusting, way too trusting for someone who just turned eighteen a few months ago. Really, it's gonna get her killed."

Gumi didn't blame Kanon at all, but she didn't really think Anon was really doing anything wrong, either. Being too trusting was definitely dangerous, especially when confined in a place like this full of strangers, but it wasn't so bad to be optimistic and hopeful. Gumi wished she could be that way, but then again, she didn't want to let her guard down at a bad time.

Luka took a seat at the table with Kanon. "You know, I haven't seen Anon go off on her own talking to strangers."

"I guess that's true," Kanon admitted. "But she might if she finishes up her shower and I'm not there."

"Then why'd you leave, Kanon?"

Kanon slowly lowered her eyes to the floor, crossing her arms more tightly around herself.

"You know," Luka added, "two of the kids I take care of at home are twins. They're fourteen years old, brother and sister. And they have a good amount of disagreements, too."

"I'm not fourteen." Kanon looked back up at Luka, narrowing her green eyes a bit. "Are you trying to patronize me?"

"No. I'm just saying, I have an idea of what it's like. But those kids would always stick together if they were in a place like this, because they trust each other more than anyone else deep down." Luka combed her fingers through her hair. "I just think it would be better for you if you were there for her."

"We're not fourteen," Kanon repeated, promptly standing up. "Just 'cause she's a few minutes younger than me, doesn't mean I have to babysit her all the time." She looked right at Gumi, still sitting and watching from Luka's bed. "What do _you_ think?"

Gumi flinched, definitely not prepared to have the attention suddenly on her. "Um...I don't know, I mean, I don't really know you or Anon that well, so..."

"That's fair." Kanon walked back over to the door. "I should probably go back to Anon, though. I guess I wouldn't want to be alone at a time like this, either. See you guys later."

Without waiting for a farewell, she shut the door behind her, leaving Gumi still wondering why Anon and Kanon both claimed they were the older sister.

* * *

After two more days, the riots outside the motel continued. Yuuma had expected the fire to die down at least a little, but it was just as lively as it had been on day one. 

How could a riot last this long without any sort of interference, and without the motel itself being damaged? Longya had mentioned that there were "protections" in place, but that was so vague, and Yuuma couldn't imagine what they would be. Were they undercover security guards, repelling the rioters from the place in fireproof gear? Was the building itself built to be fireproof? It seemed too implausible that this one building was and would remain the only reliable refuge from the chaos.

There was something more to this, something more to Longya himself. And today, it seemed other people were starting to really believe that, too.

"It just doesn't make sense," Daina said, pacing back and forth in the unfurnished lobby. "I know sometimes riots can be real drawn out, but don't you think we should've been out of here by now?"

Ruby had been sitting against the wall next to Akira, her eyes lowered. She briefly glanced up at Daina to answer her. "Maybe. I don't know much about that stuff. Hopefully we won't still be here when I'm _actually_ on my period."

"Hey, hey, I was just fucking around, I told you!" Akira threw up his hands. "'Sides, it's good to keep your guard up. If you let anyone know when you're on your period, they'll know you're vulnerable and take you out."

"Uh, why?" Daina almost laughed through the question. "This isn't The Hunger Games, dude."

"I mean, who knows? It could be. We don't have enough good food to last us _that_ long." Akira stretched out his legs across the floor, forrunately not interripting Daina's pacing path at all. "It's only a matter of time before stuff gets scarce and we're gonna have to skimp on the rations. And people are gonna be pretty desperate if they're hungry enough."

"And do what? Eat each other?" Daina bent over to lightly whack Akira on the head. "Get over yourself, Arsloid."

"What? It's good to think ahead!" Akira looked over to Ruby. "Right? Tell her I'm right, Ruby."

Yuuma wasn't desperate enough for info to snoop into anyone's bedrooms, so they didn't know what it was like in private, but from what they'd observed it seemed Ruby had been acting less lively over the time they'd been stuck here. It was understandable, they supposed. This was a stressful situation, and sometimes people sort of just shut down under a lot of stress. Still, it was concerning behavior. Yuuma actually kind of wanted to talk to her and figure out exactly what was upsetting her, but that felt like crossing a boundary. Besides, Ruby's wife was with her. She'd be much more willing to confide in Daina than some quiet stranger who hadn't even properly introduced themself to anyone here.

"Hey, babe, is everything okay?" Daina stopped her pacing and kelt down to meet eyes with Ruby. "Are you sure you slept okay?"

"Yeah, no, I'm just real tired." Ruby slowly raised her head and stood up. "I'll, uh, I guess I should probably take a nap. It's not like there's much else I can really do."

"Yeah, yeah, go get some sleep. I love you."

"I love you, too."

Daina kissed Ruby's cheek before Ruby walked away from her and toward the hallway, where Yuuma was sitting around. She stopped to look down at them for a moment, through dull red eyes. "Are you eavesdropping again?"

Yuuma didn't know how to answer that.

"People aren't gonna wanna be nice to you if you invade privacy like that," Ruby added. "Just a warning. See ya later."

As Ruby disappeared, someone else came out into the lobby. It was Kiyoteru, and he wasn't with his friends. He briefly smiled and waved down at Yuuma before approaching Daina and Akira.

"Hey," Daina greeted him. "Where's your buds?"

"Luka and Gumi? They're both in their rooms, I think." Kiyoteru walked over to the window and stood there watching the fire. "It's still as bad as ever, huh?"

Daina shrugged. "Yeah, it's pretty fucked. Honestly? I've been thinking about it, and I hate to say it 'cause he's the one giving us shelter, but I think the dude upstairs has something to do with this."

"Why?" Akira asked. "He's not outside instigating anything. Or committing arson. He's just been sittin' upstairs."

"Eh, I got a feeling he's not just doing absolutely _nothing_ up there. With no one to talk to or anything. I mean, he hasn't even come downstairs since he met us. He'd've gone _nuts_ by now."

"Maybe he's an introvert."

"Intoverts don't just _not ever_ talk to people, dumbass. _I'm_ an introvert."

Yuuma heard someone else's approach from behind, and they turned their head to see Luka walking out from the hallway. "What's going on out here, Kiyo?"

Kiyoteru tugged on the collar of his polo shirt. "Not...not much, I just came out here myself."

Akira completely ignored them. "It's only been a few days. I think it's a bit early to get suspicious of Longya."

Luka rolled her eyes. "He's kinda holding us prisoner here, Arsloid."

 _"Prisoner,_ bitch?" Akira abruptly stood up, glaring down at Luka. "Okay, then, fuckin' escape, then. Where you gonna go? The on-fire train station? The on-fire diner? You wanna be here in the same building as a guy you think is a little suspicious, or you wanna fuckin' burn to death?"

Daina lightly pushed Akira's shoulder. "Dude, don't call her a bitch, calm down--"

"You think rich people don't take _advantage_ of shit like this?" Luka started raising her voice. "You think they don't set this shit up for profit?"

"Bitch, who's _profiting?_ Did he take _your_ money?"

"You know what I _mean!_ Any lower classes are just bread and circuses to rich people. And you better stop calling me a bitch."

"Well, that's what you _are, bitch!"_

"Dude, seriously, stop calling her that, she makes a good--"

Kiyoteru was already looking pretty stressed, glancing back and forth with wide bespectacled eyes as he lowered to the floor and the arguing got louder, but it all came to a stop when Daina was struck to the floor mid-sentence.

Akira stared, his hand still raised, and to Yuuma's surprise, he looked right at them.

At this point, Yuuma didn't want to just watch from a distance. Everyone was quiet, and there was no way they'd know what to do or say next without someone new being involved. Their legs sort of ached from sitting for so long, but they ignored that and hurried over to Daina.

Luka was kneeling on the floor, holding Daina's face, a red mark fresh on her freckled cheek. It didn't look too brutal, but it still looked like it had hurt to be slapped.

Yuuma cleared their throat before speaking quietly. "Is it gonna be okay?"

"Settle down, it's not like he shot me." Daina sat up and immediately glared at Akira. "Still, what the fuck, dude?"

Akira finally lowered his hand, along with his shocked gaze. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to--"

"Like hell you didn't mean to," Daina muttered. She turned to Luka and Yuuma and spoke more softly. "Thanks for checking up on me. You're cool, don't bother with this asshole."

Akira reached out his hand. "Daina..."

Daina gently pushed it away as she stood up. "I'm gonna go be with my wife. Don't bother us."

She walked away, leaving Akira to wordlessly gaze at Luka and Yuuma for a moment before he narrowed his eyes. "God, you even got _her_ to overreact. It's not my fault if you--"

"Oh, fuck _off,"_ Luka snapped. She grabbed Yuuma's hand and pulled them up to their feet with her before actually making eye contact with them again. "What's your name, again?"

"Yuuma."

"Right, Yuuma." Luka looked back to Kiyoteru, who was still sitting on the floor and fidgeting with his hands. "Kiyo, should we just head back to your room for now? It's too early to deal with this."

Kiyoteru finally looked up and nodded, and let Luka help him up.

"Are you okay?" Yuuma asked him. He clearly wasn't, but it would be polite to at least ask.

"I-I'll be fine. I'm sorry, I just...I'm not good around arguments." Kiyoteru pushed up his glasses. "I'm glad you're here, Luka, because I know you, but...it's still very stressful. Honestly, I'd almost rather try to make it through the fire."

That sounded almost like suicidal thinking. Yuuma didn't know whether to dwell on it.

"Maybe we could figure out a way to get home quicker than just waiting this out," Luka replied as they approached the hallway. "But we should probably cool down first. Yuuma, what room did you get?"

"Um..." Considering the circumstances, Yuuma wasn't sure giving that info was a good idea, even if their room had a lock. Then again, it probably didn't matter much, since this motel didn't have many rooms, and Yuuma doubted that either Luka or Kiyoteru would put in the effort to break in. "It's oh-oh-six. But I always have my door locked."

"That's fine. I just think it'd be good to know." Luka smiled, something Yuuma didn't really expect from her right now. "You don't have to come with us. I know you seem to like keeping your distance."

"Thanks." Yuuma stuck their hand in their pocket, just to ensure their key was still there. "I'll go back to my room now. Bye."

They waved to each other, but even as Yuuma left them, they thought they could still see the slightest trembling in Kiyoteru.

They just hoped nobody would want to directly hurt him. At this point, it was hard to tell how many people had grudges with each other.

* * *

It was quiet when Yuuma awoke. Luckily, there was a working clock in their room, or else they would have almost no clue that it was past midnight, thanks to the fire continuing to ravage everything around the motel.

There were two windows in their room looking out of the back of the motel. Some parts were charred, but the fire mostly kept out. From here, a closed-off swimming pool was visible.

 _Maybe that's what Longya meant by protections,_ Yuuma thought. _But the pool doesn't go all around. Maybe he's got people working in shifts to keep the fire at bay twenty-four-seven._

They headed to their bathroom. There was still no electricity, so they only had the light of the fire to guide them to the sink. They turned it on and, due to the lack of little bathroom cups, they held their head in the sink to drink the water directly from the faucet. Considering everything, the tap water here tasted perfectly fine.

_You'd think if Longya could protect this motel, he'd help get the rest of the fire taken care of, too. But that's just how rich people are, I guess._

Once the sound of running water was gone, there was a new sound that hadn't been in the air before. It was very quiet and muffled, but if Yuuma strained their ears, it sounded like shuddered gasping, as if someone was crying or in pain. It didn't sound like it was coming from any of their neighbors, either.

Then, after what sounded like a muffled smack, or some sort of hitting, it suddenly stopped, followed by brisk footsteps trailing off.

This was definitely something that had to be investigated.

Clutching their room key, Yuuma stepped out of their room and locked the door behind them. The floor was carpeted, so it was easy to walk quietly out to the lobby. There was no other place to look for the source of the noise, and it came into view immediately, outlined by the light of the flames outside.

A silhouette lay there in a heap, unmoving, by the motel's doors. A limp hand was stretched out from it, and beside it rested a pair of glasses.


	4. Survival Mode

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: implied sexual harassment. also physical violence which i should probably just put in as a general warning

_It wouldn't be that hard. I might get caught on fire, I might get hurt. But no one would be out to kill at this time of night, right? Even if there's still fire everywhere._

He gazed out his back window, and at the pool in the land separating the building from the walls of fire.

_If I go around back and get soaked in water first, it'll be harder to get burned, so I'll have more time to make a break for the edge of Yenyu. But there's still smoke to worry about. If I can stay low, and maybe figure out how to use my clothes to cover my face, that should probably help, too._

Was it selfish to do this by himself? Maybe. But if he succeeded, he could help stop all this from the outside and free everybody else.

Or, at the very least, he could start to learn what was really going on.

His stomach growled, and it was starting to ache. He thought back to his "dinner," just a thin sandwich and some tap water. It seemed like his meals were getting smaller and smaller. If he couldn't escape town, he could maybe scavenge through the flames for some more food. That would be extremely hard to pull off, though.

First things first. He just had to quietly make his way to the lobby, then to the front doors, He figured it probably wouldn't be locked, at least not from the outside. If it was, maybe he could try a window.

But just as he reached the doors, he noticed the sound of approaching footsteps, then a hand on his shoulder, and a growl in his ear.

"Where are you going, Kiyoteru?"

Kiyoteru could barely make himself move his head, and he glimpsed a flash of white hair before he was struck in the face. His glasses fell off his face as he collided with the floor, and before he could even collect himself, he felt another sharp blow to his back.

The man knelt down. Kiyoteru couldn't see his face very well without his glasses, but he almost looked like he was smiling.

"You weren't going to just throw away my hospitality, were you?"

What else was he going to do? What else would he possibly want to do? The worst of it blocked Kiyoteru's thoughts, and he couldn't speak, he couldn't ask what was really going on, who this man really was.

"Why are you crying? Be a man, Kiyoteru. You're never going to survive this game if you're such a pansy."

_I don't want to play a game. I want to go home. I want to go home, I want to see Kaito..._

"And I can't have you trying to quit, either. Be thankful I'm letting you off easy this time."

And then, suddenly, a pounding, deafening darkness.

* * *

Yuuma had thought he was dead.

In normal situations, they liked to think they would be able to save lives. They would be able to see someone getting hurt and defend them. But, in reality, when facing what they thought was the dead body of someone who they'd watched talk and breathe just hours before...all they could do was stare.

They'd eventually had the sense to listen closely and hear Kiyoteru's breathing and feel his pulse. He had bruises on his face. Yuuma could only guess that he'd tried to escape, risking burning to death outside just to get away from here, and then was caught and beaten by...Longya? Why would Longya have even noticed?

No one else had any reason to hurt Kiyoteru. They knew now for absolute certain that Longya could not be trusted. And even though Kiyoteru was relatively safe now, Yuuma still felt a nervous weakness in their body as they ate a cup of dry oat cereal in the lobby and watched the others in the room--Ruby, Daina, Anon and Kanon--fron afar.

"That's it?" Daina, sitting beside Ruby on the floor, bent forward over Ruby's food. "Just a slice of bread? That's all the asshole gave you?"

Ruby poked absentmindedly at the bread on the paper plate, not meeting Daina's eyes. "Well...I haven't really had much of an appetite. I don't wanna take away the good stuff from people who need it."

 _"You're_ the people who need it!" Daina reached for her cereal and held it out to her. "Take mine. I know you haven't been eating as much."

Ruby shifted her legs, and her eyes very slightly widened.

"Look, not to bring up bad memories, but, like...you know why I worry about that stuff, right?"

Anon piped up from the corner. "Why?"

Daina briefly turned just to glare at Anon and say, "None of your business, dick." Ruby mumbled something, so Daina quickly got closer to her. "What?"

"I don't want you to...you need it more than me, okay?"

"Ruby." Daina held her hand to Ruby's face. "Please don't do this."

Someone walked past Yuuma, and they instinctively tightened their muscles. It was Akira, and he was approaching the girls.

"Ruby, look at me..." Daina's voice was growing a bit shriller. "Ruby?"

Ruby didn't respond. She stared right ahead of her, leaning slightly forward, then quickly falling over, her stomach on the floor and her arms limp.

 _"Ruby!"_ Daina shrieked and immediately shook Ruby by the torso. "Fuck! Ruby!" 

She only attempted to shake Ruby back into consciousness for a moment before stopping and whipping her head upward to face Akira.

_"You."_

"What the fuck," Akira instantly retorted, taking a step back, "what did _I_ do?"

"You've been skimping on her rations, that's what." Daina pushed herself up to her feet. "You've been trying to starve my wife. You've been trying to fucking starve my wife."

"Why would I do that?"

"That's what I wanna know!" Daina thrust out a hand to grab Akira's shirt collar. "This is a fucking game to you, too, isn't it? You're just trying to kill off everyone one at a time, aren't you? And tell me this, just tell me this--what the fuck have you been trying to tell Ruby?"

Then Kanon stood and approached them, clenching her fists. "It's your fault, too, Daina--"

"You wanna fucking say that again?"

"--you really thought you could trust this fucking guy with food? This fuckin' snake?" Kanon lightly shoved Akira aside. "If you'd just let it be or at least let someone with some fucking decency like Luka or Kiyoteru handle it, she'd be fine."

Anon reached out a hand. "Kanon, don't--"

"Why are you always fucking blaming me?" Akira yelled. "Ruby's literally just sick, and if your asses weren't so paranoid you'd care more about her than about ganging up on me."

Daina's face was turning red. "Oh, so now _I_ don't care about my fucking wife? You know Ruby's just finally fucking recovering from an eating disorder?"

"She's not even _thin--"_

_"You wanna fucking play that card, Arsloid?"_

It was getting violent. They were getting violent. And Akira, in particular, was getting really defensive and angry. He could really, really hurt someone. Even moreso than yesterday. Kanon was relatively small in stature and only about Yuuma's age, and Ruby was incredibly weak, so they were both really vulnerable, too, if Akira decided to get really violent.

In normal circumstances, they could figure out a much better, much more sensible way to solve this. But Yuuma was really in survival mode now. They were losing their common sense, they were losing their stability. 

They might have already known that since they took their "welcome gift" out of their room this morning, the one they were pulling out of their pocket.

They squeezed the trigger.

* * *

The first morning Ruby had woken up here, she was alone in bed wondering what was going on. It took only a minute or so for her memory to catch up, and she figured the sound of running water was the shower in their bathroom. 

Even in a situation like this, Daina couldn't give up her morning shower.

Just as Ruby had pulled herself out from under the covers and pulled on the slightly burnt pants she'd worn the day before, there was a knock on the door. She opened it right away and way greeted by Akira, with some small plastic bags in hand.

"Morning. I'm just giving you and your wife breakfast." He set the plastic bags on the bedside table, then looked over the room. "Where is she? Shower?"

"Yeah," Ruby confirmed. "I don't know how long, I just got up."

"Alright." Akira picked one of the bags back up and handed it to Ruby. "This one's yours."

The only thing inside was a cup of plain yogurt.

"I figured you'd need something small."

Ruby almost dropped the bag. She'd need something small? Why did he come to that conclusion? She tried to remember the things her therapist and wife had told her, but it was overshadowed by her own thoughts, resurfacing from starved times.

_You didn't do good enough. And you won't survive if you don't keep this under control._

"You okay?"

Ruby tried to swallow her fear. "I guess that's true. You don't need to be an asshole about it--"

"What?"

"It's 'cause I look a little chubbier than everyone else, right?" Ruby sighed. "I know. I eat too much. But I guess it's good to keep the small stuff for me."

Then his hand reached over to her stomach. She froze, suddenly not being able to find any more thoughts or words, only her heart beating faster.

"You know it's survival of the fittest in things like this," Akira told her, in a very low voice. "I'm just trying to balance things out. Once you lose some weight, it'll be much easier to make it out."

When Akira finally left, Daina was still in the shower. Ruby set aside her food and sat on the bed, waiting for the lingering touches on her body to fade away.

* * *

The reverberation of the shot rang in their ears, almost completely blocking out everyone's screams and all the rushing footsteps from the hallway. They couldn't focus their eyes on anything, and they couldn't even tell if they were still sitting upright.

They'd never shot anyone before. It was an incredibly dazing revelation, before panic really set in. The gun was still in their hand. They were still conscious. No one was attacking them, no one was trying to steal the gun.

But they'd shot the wrong person.

The room came back into view. More people were here. Everyone that wasn't staring at Yuuma with bulging eyes was examining either Ruby, still unconscious on the floor, or the victim of Yuuma's misaimed gunshot.

Forrunately, she didn't appear to be shot in any fatal place, like the head or the heart, but it still looked incredibly painful. Blood was gushing at an alarming pace from Kanon's knee. She stood still, her stunned gaze tied to the wound, as Anon held to her tightly, speaking quickly in a shaky voice.

"It's gonna be fine, okay? It's gonna be fine. Can you hear me? Kanon, can you hear me?"

Gumi had her hands clamped over her mouth, but she lowered them to shout a cracked sentence across to her friend. "Luka! Don't you have bandages left?"

Without a word, Luka ran back down the hall, hopefully to her room or wherever she was keeping her first aid. Meanwhile, Daina scooped Ruby up into her arms and cautiously walked in the same direction, without a word or a glance to anyone else. Yohio watched them, then approached the twins, having lowered to the floor, on his knees.

Kanon didn't acknowledge him at all, just breathing heavily as Anon held to her on the floor, watching hopelessly as the blood poured out, only being able to hug Kanon and ask again, "Can you hear me?"

This time, Kanon spoke, in a breathless cry through tears of pain. "I'm gonna die. Anon, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die."

"Shh, it's okay. It's okay. See, Luka's coming back right now."

"I don't wanna die..."

Luka approached with her first aid kit, then knelt down and began working on cleaning up the blood on Kanon's knee without a word.

Yohio held out a plastic bottle. "H-here, it's...it's just tap water, but--"

"No!" Anon nearly shouted at him. "I don't want her to get your mouth germs!"

Yohio nodded and retracted his water bottle, then clutched his stomach. Luka turned her head to quietly ask him, "You okay?"

"It's just...it's just a stomachache. Just help Kanon." Yohio squeezed his eyes shut for a second, then stared at Kanon's injury, still holding his hands to his stomach. "I mean...if you can. If it's not too fatal or anything."

Kanon still didn't notice him. In fact, her eyes seemed totally unfocused now, and her eyelids were starting to lower.

"No!" Anon squeezed her hand. "Stay awake, please, stay awake, Kanon...it'll be okay. Please don't..."

She didn't want to cry now. She gulped down the lump in her throat.

"Please don't leave."

"Hey, Anon?" Luka reached over to rest her hand over Anon's. "She'll be fine, okay? She'll wake up later. I can't totally fix it, but I should be able to ease the pain, at least. If you want to go and calm down in your room, or something..."

Anon blinked through hot tears. She couldn't tear herself away. "I don't want to leave her alone when she wakes up."

Then something grabbed her from behind. She flinched and spun around, ready to fend off whoever had snuck up on her. It was Yuuma. They gazed down at Anon through hollow eyes, and their hands were empty.

At least they hadn't come to do any more damage. If they weren't here to hurt, they could answer Anon's fragile question. "Why did you shoot her?"

"I didn't mean to. I panicked, and I thought it was the only thing I could do to stop things from getting much worse, and I was aiming for..." Yuuma quickly surveyed the room, but couldn't seem to find what they were looking for. "I was aiming for someone else."

"You missed."

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, I never wanted to hurt either of you..."

They seemed genuinely ashamed and appalled with themself, even while holding Anon's gaze so steadily. Anon didn't want to believe Yuuma had any malicious intent at all. She wanted to believe they were good, and she thought she still did believe that, but she couldn't just forgive them for this. If Kanon ended up bleeding out, then...

"Please leave me alone." Anon turned back to her sister. "Please leave us alone."

Anon didn't hear a response, but she did hear Yuuma turn around and walk off. She didn't have anything else to say. She grasped Kanon's unmoving hand and watched as Luka wrapped gauze over the bloody knee.

All Anon could do was think _it's going to be okay_ to herself over and over.

* * *

In times when someone is panicked and unstable, maybe even traumatized, they can neglect even the simplest things that will keep them safe.

The door to their room hadn't been locked. As they slept in the bed inside, after hours of nightmarish thoughts plaguing them, the sound of the door opening did not reach their ears.

The visitor cautiously began opening the drawers. One nightstand had nothing inside. The other...

_Yuuma...you really shouldn't be so reckless like that. We need to try to survive. And...you might not make it out alive if you can't have this._

Yuuma deserved to live, and the visitor pitied them, almost enough to have reluctance. But not quite enough to change any mind.

The visitor softly pushed the nightstand drawer closed, and successfully made a quiet escape, carefully holding the stolen gun.


	5. It Didn't Change A Thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: discussion of...cannibalism. d. don't worry about it ok.

Kiyoteru's bruises were healing pretty well, considering everything. He didn't like looking at them. He wasn't so self conscious of how they looked, but even just looking in the mirror and seeing that mark on his jaw put that same paralyzing fear back in him. It was usually only for a second or two, but it felt too much like his nightmares to deal with.

He was extremely lucky that Luka was here, although at this point, he felt so guilty for thinking that. He wasn't incredibly close to Luka--he really didn't know much more than that she and Kaito were childhood friends--but he knew she was a kind, trustworthy person. She didn't deserve to be stuck in a place like this. She didn't deserve to be surviving on scraps, surrounded by tension and an endless fire. And now, Kiyoteru knew that she wasn't safe here, either.

"Why are you worried about me?" Luka asked after examining his bruises. "I haven't gotten hurt."

"But you might," Kiyoteru told her. "Everyone here can be dangerous. Even I might end up hurting you somehow. I want this to end before that happens. I want to get out."

"I know." Luka sat down at the edge of the bed. "Believe me, I'm not exactly enjoying my stay either. I'm still trying to think of something, because obviously just waiting it out isn't going to do any good."

Kiyoteru nodded. "I wish I could do something. I tried, I thought maybe if I escaped I could...help stop it from the outside somehow."

He stood up from the bed, but was struck by a wave of haziness. A sudden air filled his head, overflowing and aching his skull. Everything blurred into fuzz, it swayed around him and pulled him back down. He could tell his grip on consciousness was fragile; he had to try to focus, but everything was very slowly swirling around him, and it would fade soon if he dared even blink...

Even if he could barely feel reality, he recognized the hands slowly pulling him back to the motel bed.

"Kiyo, God, are you feeling alright?" A cold hand lightly planted to his forehead. "Are you dizzy?"

"I'm sorry," Kiyoteru was able to answer, despite the weight in his head. "I don't know what this is. I think I might...I'm really lightheaded."

"Did you eat?"

"I did, but...it wasn't much. Just a piece of bread."

Kiyoteru thought he heard Luka mutter something like "that fucker" before standing up. "Alright, don't get up, okay? I'll get you a cup of water."

After what happened to Ruby the day before, Luka was really getting worried about everyone. Ruby wasn't the only one being targeted. If Kiyoteru was being targeted because he was a weak link or something, or because of getting hurt by Longya, then it was reasonable to think that Gumi was being targeted too, since she had an injured leg. And Kanon, too, now that she'd been shot. Everyone was definitely turning against Akira now. They had to figure out how to strip him of his role in feeding everyone, before anyone ended up starving to death over some petty bullshit.

It took Luka only a few moments to grab one of the cups from the cabinet, make sure it wasn't buried in dust, fill it up with tap water and set it on the nightstand, but before she could say another word, there was a knock on the door.

Luka really didn't know if having visitors in Kiyoteru's room was a good idea, but she took a deep breath and opened up the door anyway.

It was Yuuma, hunched over with their hands stuffed in their pockets. They still looked so ashamed. Luka didn't know if they were safe to have in the room, but she could tell they weren't malicious.

Still, Kiyoteru was just now recovering from a dizzy spell.

Before any greeting, she asked, "Did you bring your gun?"

"No." Yuuma briefly exposed their hands to show they were empty, though that didn't really prove anything. "That's actually, um, why I came."

"To apologize for shooting Kanon?"

"No, no, this is..." Yuuma took a step into the room and pulled the door closed. "I...I was really, um, I was fucked up yesterday. Like, um, I think I might've had a mental breakdown or something, now that I think about it."

"And?"

"I forgot to lock my door."

Luka immediately stiffened. If this had something to do with the gun, then...

"I came here," Yuuma continued, "just to ask Kiyoteru if he had any idea. And because I trust him. But I think I trust you too."

"God..." Luka sighed and rubbed her temples. "I don't have any idea. I'm sorry."

"Any idea about what?" Kiyoteru mumbled and started to sit up. Luka sprang over to forcibly lower him back down to the bed.

"Someone stole Yuuma's gun," Luka told him. "Don't get up, okay? I don't want you to pass out."

"Well..." Kiyoteru blinked slowly up at her. "Shouldn't we go figure out who took it? Before anyone gets shot?"

Yuuma tensed up and muttered "fuck" before reaching out and grabbing Luka's hand. "He's right. We need to know where that is, it still has four bullets left in it. Let's go find it."

Luka was practically being dragged out of the room now, but she managed to shout "stay put" over to Kiyoteru before Yuuma closed the door behind them.

Alas, the answer came too soon, or maybe the question was asked too late. As soon as they stepped out into the hallway, they heard the screaming echo of a gunshot.

* * *

It still hurt.

Kanon woke up to a throbbing ache in her knee, and a reminder of yesterday. She was lucky she hadn't been shot somewhere fatal, and that--was it Luka that had come to her?--that person was able to stop the bleeding.

Even if it didn't hurt quite as much now, the mere memory of the burn of the bullet in her body was nearly as insufferable.

She then noticed Anon was already out of her bed, and staring at her from across the room before rushing over and leaning over her.

"How's your leg?" she asked, her gaze quickly focusing on the bulge under the blankets.

Kanon cleared her throat to answer. "Uh, still hurts like hell, but I think it's, it feels a little better."

"Good!" Anon's mouth turned up into a smile, and she patted Kanon's head. "You're lucky you've got your big sis to help take care of you!"

Of course she couldn't let up on that, even now. Kanon was grateful, but she made no effort to mask her exasperated groan. "Christ, Anon, you know _I_ was born first, right?"

"Hee hee!" Anon giggled and shrugged. "Our parents couldn't--can't prove it, how can you? I'm the older twin and that's final!"

"It's not final."

"Oh well!" Anon skipped back across the room. "Well, I'll be in the shower, 'kay? The door's unlocked, so you don't have to get up to let anyone in. Like Luka or someone like that."

There wasn't much for Kanon to do while her _younger_ sister was in the shower. She couldn't move too much, because moving her injured leg even slightly brought that fire of pain back into it. There were some familiar plastic bags by the nightstand. They probably had her breakfast, but she didn't really have an appetite.

She could try to go back to sleep until Anon was finished, but now that she'd already come out of sleep, the remnants of the burning in her wound were hard to ignore.

Anon could take really long showers, too.

Kanon wandered aimlessly in her thoughts, gravitating to the mundane things, about how her mother used to bring her meals on a tray when she got sick, about how she missed being able to watch movies with her family. She didn't know how much time passed like this before a knock on the door jolted her out.

Kanon stretched her arms, careful not to move her legs too much. "Uh, come in."

She figured it was probably Luka with the first aid kit, or maybe Yuuma coming to apologize. Kanon knew it was an accident, but she was still a bit bitter at their recklessness. But instead, it was someone she couldn't guess.

"Yohio? What are you doing here?"

Yohio shut the door behind him and held up a plastic bag. "I, uh, I asked Luka for some first aid stuff. 'Cause she seems pretty busy already with her friends, they're kinda hurt too."

Right, Gumi had some sort of wound on her leg, too, and Kanon thought she'd heard something about Kiyoteru getting beaten up. If Luka was the only one doing any sort of medical care, it would take a while for everyone to get the help they needed.

"Thanks," Kanon said. She pushed the covers off of her and then propped up her leg, gritting her teeth through the lingering burn of pain, with a lump of blankets. "Are you sure you know what you're doing, though?"

"Well, it, uh, it can't be that hard, right?" Yohio shrugged. "I mean, I can't do surgery or anything, but, like, I can at least just make sure it's clean."

"Yeah, I guess." Kanon stretched her arms. "It's so weird, though. That there's still just a bullet in my knee. There's no way that's not gonna get infected."

"Uh-huh." Yohio began to very gently unwrap the gauze bandage. "This is, uh, definitely not gonna go away while we're here. I don't really know anything about gunshot wounds, but I think having a bullet stuck in there isn't something you can just patch up with some ointment and a bandaid."

"Yeah, but you might as well just do what you can 'til I can actually get myself to a hospital."

Yohio hummed in agreement, then squinted at the undressed wound. "Uh, I...I guess it looks _relatively_ clean. It's not bleeding anymore.

"I mean," Kanon replied, "it's not like you can just rub a cotton swab around in there anyway."

"Right...I guess-- _agh!"_

Yohio grunted and dropped the dirtied gauze to the floor, his hands grabbing his stomach as he fell to his knees. Kanon tried to sit up and look down at him, but with her injury, it hurt too much to move like that. "Are you okay, Yohio? What is it?"

"God, I can't..." Yohio jerked his head up, looking over the edge of the bed with wide eyes. "I can't fucking take this anymore."

"Wh-what?"

"I'm hungry."

"You..." Kanon couldn't see them, but she could tell his hands were clutching his stomach. If he had to drop to the floor, it had to be hurting a lot. It probably had been hurting for a while. He was still conscious, but she couldn't help but be reminded of what happened to Ruby the day before.

She guessed, "Arsloid hasn't been giving you enough food?"

"No. No way. This morning...he--he gave me two crackers." Yohio tensed his shoulders as he held up two fingers. _"Two crackers._ That's it."

"That's so fucked..." Kanon lowered her head back to the pillow. "Look, I didn't eat what he dropped off this morning. And I'm not super hungry, so you can--"

"I don't want to take your food."

"Why? You need it more than me."

"And then what?" Yohio slowly stood back up, with one hand still on his stomach. "He'll still give me less every day. 'Cause I'm just a kid to him, I'm not worth keeping alive. It'll hurt his chances of being a survivor. And he'll probably start giving less to you, too, because you got shot. This is just a game of survival of the fittest to him, and there's not gonna be any way to stop him from having the power of controlling who gets to eat."

"Why don't we just raid his room and--"

"Even if we could do that without him finding out and hurting us, we're still gonna be stuck here too long. I think Longya is keeping the riots going on purpose until we're all dead. I don't know why, but I think that's what he wants. We'll run out of food and starve to death. And I'm not strong enough. I'll be one of the first people to die. And you will, too, 'cause you're hurt."

Kanon barely knew this guy. She wanted to reassure him that things would turn out better than that, that they wouldn't have to die, but she had no time to find any words before he kept spilling, as if he'd had this sealed up for far too long and had no way to stop it now.

"I don't wanna die, Kanon." Yohio wiped his arm over his eyes. "I have a family. My parents and my little brother, I wanna see them. I have my best friend, she was here in Yenyu with me the day it started and she, we got separated, I want to be able to see her again...I really, really don't wanna die, Kanon."

Kanon glimpsed movement in the corner of her eye, and she lifted her head to see it more clearly. It was Anon, stepping out of the bathroom with wet orange hair and big green eyes.

"I don't want to hurt anyone," Yohio went on. "I really, really don't. But I--I can't get out of this alive without hurting anyone. So I might as well hurt the least amount of people possible."

Anon approached the bed. "What're you talking about?"

Yohio squeezed his eyes shut for a second, then slipped a hand in his back pocket. He opened his eyes wide again and stared at Kanon. His red irises looked like they were glimmering.

"Just one person. We'll take just one person and live off their meat."

"What...?"

There was no way he was saying what it seemed like he was saying, right? He was just a teenager, and he seemed like a good person. There was no way he was suggesting...

He pulled his hand back out, and he was gripping a gun. The same gun that had shot her knee.

_"NO!"_

Kanon couldn't move. Her heart was rapidly throbbing in her throat, choking her, stunning all her nerves. She couldn't escape. She couldn't even cry or scream.

But Anon could. She let out that scream and threw herself over the bed, over Kanon's body. She nudged Kanon's injury pretty roughly, but that pain was nulled by the deafening sound of the gunshot.

The memory of that sound flashed in her eyes. The same scream burst out of her throat. The same fire spilled from her eyes. The same shade of crimson blurred into her vision.

But the pain wasn't the same. The pain wasn't her own. She wasn't the one who was hit with the bullet.

The bloody impact bloomed right in front of her, where Anon's neck was opened up.

The blood was still pulsing through. Anon very slowly turned her head to look up at Kanon. The tears on her face and the blood gushing out of her neck didn't seem real. Anon wasn't supposed to look like this. There was no way this was her sister bleeding out on top of her right now. There was no way this could be happening to her.

But the smile she gave was unmistakable.

"Why...?" The word crawled out of Kanon's throat, and part of her wanted to say more, wanted to say so much more, but she could only pathetically whimper, "Why...I don't want you to die, I don't...why..."

"I love you," Anon whispered, the green light in her eyes dulling far too quickly. "I don't want to die either."

"You're not dying. You're not dying. I love you too, you're not dying."

"It hurts," Anon feebly breathed, still holding that smile. "It hurts a lot. I don't want to die. But...I have to protect you, right? Because I'm the older twin."

She wasn't dying. She wasn't dying. She wasn't closing her eyes, with one last cool breath escaping the smile deathly still on her face, her hair still wet from the shower she'd been taking just minutes ago, her cheeks still wet. She was alive, her hair and her face were still wet. She was alive--

"I'm sorry..."

She was dead. She was dead because of him, still staring through crocodile tears, still holding that fucking gun.

"Fuck, I'm sorry, I'm--I didn't, I really didn't mean to--"

If Kanon couldn't save her sister, the least she could do was bend forward, grab that from his stiffened hand and fire it right at his forehead.

_"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, I'm--KANON, NO--"_

Another pounding bang of the gun, and it didn't change a thing.

As he fell dead to the floor, Kanon drew into herself, clinging to the final scraps of warmth from her sister, and welcoming the lulling darkness pulsing in her skull.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you misconstrue the sibling love as incest get the fuck out. get out. leave! you're not allowed!


	6. Blood on the Hands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: slight possible misogyny, implied/discussed sexual harassment

Kanon hadn't noticed the people crowding at the door yet.

Luka had opened the door to see Anon dying in her sister's arms, as Yohio, the gun still in his hand, took a step back and started crying his apologies before Kanon wordlessly took the gun and shot him in the head.

It was too shocking to really have any reaction to. Luka just stood, frozen in place, as others gathered to observe the scene.

Something grabbed her arm.

Luka squeaked and turned to see. "Kiyo? I told you to stay put, you're not feeling well--"

"They're dead," Kiyoteru quietly interrupted. "I can't stay in my room wondering if you're gonna die, too."

Luka looked toward the open door again, trying not to look directly at the blood spilling from the body on the floor. "I guess I understand. But I don't want you to get hurt either."

She heard a throat clearing up behind her. She instantly turned back around to see the source.

It was Yuezheng Longya, looming over them with arms crossed and a clenched jaw.

Luka wanted to scream at him. She wanted to hold him to the ground and ask what he wanted, what he planned to get out of this. Now that two teenagers were dead, was he going to drop the act? Or was he going to keep up the charade of hospitality and watch everyone pick each other off, devolve into animalistic freaks of nature who cared for nothing but survival?

Something about the way Kiyoteru clung to her arm stopped her from saying a word. But Daina didn't seem to have any issue with confrontation.

"Fucking bastard!" Daina stormed up to him and practically spat in his face. "Fuck you want? You wanna loot their corpses for money or whatever rich sadists do to their prisoners? You wanna keep Arsloid in charge of starving everyone to death?"

Longya blinked, seeming only mildly confused. "Arsloid...?"

"Fuck, Akira, whatever, he's trying to fucking starve my wife!"

Now that she mentioned it...Ruby and Akira were the two people who hadn't come here. Longya seemed to notice, too. "Hm...where _is_ your wife? You wouldn't leave her alone if she's suffering so much, would--"

"Shut the fuck up!" Daina clenched her fists. "You're the one keeping us prisoner here, you're the one keeping these riots going, the least you could fucking do is let people fucking _eat!"_

Longya took a deep breath, and shoved her aside to walk into the room. "This doesn't look very...promising, does it? I suppose the best thing to do would be letting them burn in the fire."

Daina nearly bared her teeth. "You wanna fucking burn their bodies?"

"What else could we do?" Longya shrugged. "There's nowhere to bury them, after all. Do you propose we just...let them rot in one of the empty rooms?"

"You're not taking her."

A broken voice came from the room. Kanon hadn't moved, but she could still speak from where she held her sister.

"You're not taking her. You're not burning her. I'm not letting you do that."

Longya sighed and nodded. "I suppose it should be up to you. It's your game. I'm--"

_"This is still a fucking game to you?"_

Daina burst into the bedroom and looked over the floor. "Where's the gun? The fucking gun, you're not fucking getting away with this, I'm putting that lead in your skull before you let anyone else die-- _augh!"_

Longya punched her in the jaw, a force strong enough to knock her to the floor, into the puddle of blood growing from Yohio's body.

Kiyoteru clung tighter to Luka's arm, and she heard his breath hitch when Longya turned his icy gaze toward him. 

"I'll leave you all be, then," Longya decided, walking back out. He stopped by Kiyoteru and Luka. "And...Kiyoteru.'

Luka could feel his heart beat more violently by the second.

"Stop cowering behind that woman if you want to survive."

Luka wanted to punch him right in the face, but she couldn't do that. She could tell Daina was stronger than her, so if Longya knocked her out, trying to punch him wouldn't fix anything at all.

He retreated back upstairs, and as Kiyoteru released Luka, Yuuma approached them, their stare glued to the floor.

"This is my fault." Their fists tightened on the sleeve cuffs of their hoodie, but their voice stayed quiet and steady. "If I hadn't missed my shot, if I managed to hit Akira instead of fucking it up...Anon would still be alive, and Kanon wouldn't be hurt."

"It's not your fault," Kiyoteru replied, his voice cracking a little.

Yuuma looked right up at him. "It _is_ my fault. I freaked out and threw caution out the window. I didn't even think to make sure my door was locked last night. That's how Yohio was able to get the gun and kill Anon in the first place."

"Do you have the gun now?" Luka asked.

Yuuma nodded, glancing toward Gumi helping Daina up off the floor. "Kanon dropped it on the floor, I took it before Longya could see."

"Arsloid's the main source of everyone's problem," Luka said. "Besides Longya himself, of course. I hate to advocate murder, but..."

"I don't care for sparing his life at all," Yuuma reassured her. "I wouldn't have any problem with killing him off. But last time I tried shooting him, like I said..."

"Well, you weren't prepared. You said you panicked or something, right? If you put some more thought into things and keep as calm as you can, you can put this to good use."

Yuuma nodded slowly. "I get it. I'll, um...I'll try it, then. As soon as I can be sure I'll do it right."

Luka felt something tug at her shirt. Gumi had approached her, pulling her bandaged leg along and stepping gingerly on the floor.

"I don't know what we're going to do with their bodies," she said, tightly folding her hands together. "There's nowhere we can properly bury them. And Kanon doesn't want to let go."

Luka sighed. "I can imagine. If Rin or Len ended up dying, if one of the twins was killed right in front of the other...they'd be completely broken."

"Mm-hmm. I think I might take Kanon to my room. I don't want her to be alone." Gumi started playing with a lock of her bright green hair. "I don't want people to keep dying, Luka. I don't wanna keep getting barely anything to eat and limping around on one leg all the time. I want to go home."

Luka didn't want to tell Gumi that she would survive. It felt like a false promise. But she didn't want Gumi to be too scared, either.

"We'll figure everything out." She tried to smile for Gumi. "It's not going to be pretty, but once we take care of everything hurting us, I think things will look up from there."

* * *

"Babe?"

Daina called out quietly into the room as she pulled the door open. Her wife was right where she'd left her, lying on her side under messy blankets, her shoulders bronzed by the light of the fire in the window, her unknempt pink hair fallen by her face.

Daina fretted that she hadn't even noticed her at first, but she was soon greeted with dull red eyes glancing briefly in her direction.

She gently shut the door behind her and approached the nightstand. The cup resting on it was still full of tap water, and the cup itself felt lukewarm.

"Ruby..." Daina picked up the cup, taking care not to handle it too roughly. "I told you to drink this."

Ruby didn't say anything.

"Are you listening? I'm not letting you do this to yourself again, Ruby." Daina sat at the edge of the bed and reached for Ruby's face. "I don't get it. I still don't get why you think refusing to eat or drink anything is a good idea."

Ruby closed her eyes and finally spoke very weakly. "If I look thinner, he'll leave me alone."

Daina bit harshly down on her lip, and she could feel her hand start to tremble as she placed the cup of water back on the nightstand. "You're talking about...?"

"Akira," Ruby quietly confirmed. "Just today, after those gunshots happened, he came in and looked all over me and..."

Daina's blood boiled so suddenly that she was filled with lightheadedness for a moment. Her heart tightened and pulsed blood so violently through her body. Her fingertips burned with the desire to pull a trigger, and images of his corpse with a bullet through his head gleefully flashed in red hues in her mind's eye.

She still had no way of getting her hands on that gun, but that didn't matter. It didn't matter. This was the last fucking straw. If no one else would do this, she had to take matters into her own hands.

_I don't care if it's impossible. I don't care if I'm not strong enough. I just want that fucking waste of air's blood on my hands. Right now._

She barely restrained herself from slamming the door behind her. She didn't know exactly where he was, but she could figure it out. All the rooms toward the end of the hallway were empty, and she'd seen him leave from the beginning of the hallway. Luka was in room three, and she was pretty sure Kiyoteru was in room two.

_001._

She knew this was it. She knew this is where it would end. She pounded her fists on the door, and she clenched and unclenched, waiting to tighten them around his neck.

Some movement inside, but no answer. She pounded harder.

No answer. She kicked, over and over and over. If she kept at it, she'd break his door down. Before that came, the movement approached her and she stopped just in time for the door to open.

"Jesus, Daina--"

She didn't waste a second. She lunged at him, throwing her hands around his neck as she pinned him to the floor, her thumbs digging into his throat, locking her gaze to the wide red eyes.

"You've been touching my wife."

He started to choke out another pathetic defense, but Daina was not going to allow it.

"You're starving her, touching her, forcing her to drain herself of life, you fucking want her dead, don't you?" Her grip tightened even more. "And you think you can get away with hurting her. I should have fucking strangled you on day one."

But of course, he could defend himself. She held her breath and didn't flinch when he kneed her in the stomach, but he had strong enough arms to grab her and throw her into a brief, dazing whirl before she was on the floor. Her fingers still dug into his neck, but now his hands were grabbing hers.

"Of course I can get away with it," he snarled, now that he had more room to breathe. "I have to keep her in check. Even a little chubbiness on the legs is a death sentence for everyone. You want her to keep being a glutton?"

The pressure on Daina's throat left her with less air, but she could still spit at him. "You're just a dirty fucking waste. People like you are just fucking poison, and you're gonna die full of the same pain you drown your world in."

Her grip was very slowly getting weaker.

He smiled, sick satisfaction leaking from his teeth. "And if I kill you right now?"

"Then you're in for something worse than me. Because everyone else in this hellhole still alive is a good enough person to end your selfish, sadistic bullshit."

Maybe she would die here. She couldn't grip him so tightly anymore, and the corners of her vision burned into dark static. But, at the very least, she had let him know that he wasn't going to win whatever game he thought he was playing.

But before anything, before she could slip into death with no more air left in her throat, another shot fired, in their direction.


	7. Hope Is Dangerous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: suicidal ideation

The pressure released.

The impact forced Akira off Daina, and he landed beside her. All movement was gone. He was perfectly still besides the blood trickling from the hole on the side of his head.

Daina looked to the door. It was Yuuma holding the gun with shaking hands.

A voice, sounding like Luka, called out from behind them: "Yuuma? Is everything okay?"

That seemed to snap them out of it, and they lowered the gun and their shoulders. 

"I-I got him," they announced, their voice and hands still quivering. "A-and I can see the food supply."

"Christ." Luka appeared in the doorway. "Of course he was literally just hoarding--oh, shit, Daina, are you okay?"

Daina wasn't sure she could entirely process what just happened. Just moments ago, that man was alive, choking the life out of her...but now, she could breathe, and he was gone, thanks to Yuuma.

"Fuck..." Daina muttered as she got to her feet. "I'm...fine now, I think. Um, thank you, for...helping."

Luka walked over to her, and pointed to the wall behind her. "Were you here to get that?"

Daina turned. There was the sack, hunched over on the floor against the wall and dresser. Only some of the opening was visible, but Daina could make out some colors of cereal cups and bags of chips.

"Jeez, I didn't even think about looking for it," Daina admitted. "I was so focused on killing that fucker."

Luka nodded. "I appreciate that you kept him busy, honestly. I just wish it hadn't been so...life-threatening."

"Yeah, uh, thanks. But speaking of life-threatening..." Daina knelt by the sack and opened it up to take a better look. "Ruby's barely eaten anything for...two, three days? She needs this more than anyone."

"Hold on, Daina." Luka lightly tapped her shoulder. "If Ruby's starved, she can't eat too much right away. It could get her sick."

Daina looked up at her. "Why? You think her body's too used to having no food in it?"

"Exactly. It won't know what to do with all the new food energy, and the phosphates and insulin and other things in the body act up. It might even give her seizures or heart failure and kill her. It's called refeeding syndrome."

If Ruby didn't eat now, she could die. If Ruby did eat now, she could die. "So what do we do? Just give her a crumb?"

"Well, it doesn't have to be like what Arsloid gave her. But it should still be small." Luka reached into the sack, and pulled out a plastic baggie with a thick sandwich inside, with lettuce and slices of tomato poking out. "If you separate this and have her eat each part a little at a time, that'll help get her body used to food. I'd start with the bread, and then the lettuce."

"Ruby doesn't like tomatoes." Daina took the baggie from Luka's hand. "But...I guess we can cross that bridge when we get to it."

"I don't like tomatoes either, but I can't really be picky at a time like this." Luka looked to her left, and flinched a little. "Wait, where's Yuuma?"

Sure enough, Yuuma had disappeared. Maybe they were shaken up about killing someone and had to leave to calm down, or maybe they just wanted to put the gun away in their room. Or...Daina sort of doubted they would go that far, but given what had already happened today...

"I'll have to check on them," Luka sighed, stretching her arms and standing upright. "Make sure they don't...do anything impulsive. You can go ahead and take that to Ruby. Make sure to grab something for yourself, too, okay?"

"Alright." Daina cleared her throat and forced a grin. "Thanks, Luka."

"It's no problem. Take care of yourself, too."

Daina dug into the sack and pulled out another sandwich in a baggie. Her forced smile melted to a light, genuine one. Ignoring the environment, and the horrible situation they were in, maybe they could have a moment of love and peace, eating lunch together in a motel room. 

Ignorance was never a good thing, but Daina just wanted a moment of hope, a moment of joy within the fire. She already imagined Ruby's eyes lighting up again, her smile gleaming again, knowing that no despicable man was going to hurt her now.

For once, it was safe to hope that things would brighten up.

* * *

Gumi's breath hitched when she heard the gunshot. 

She figured it was probably okay. She didn't hear any screaming of things having gone horribly wrong. Still, she was always so scared of having any hope at all, especially these days. She wanted to run out and check on it, just to be sure Luka and Yuuma were safe, but she couldn't exactly be in a hurry.

Her breakfast was a pathetic cheap cracker snack. She had a feeling it was past the expiration date, but her stomach pain could also have been from her hunger. Both that and the worsening infection in her leg made it a little difficult for her to move around too much, so she probably couldn't make it down the hall in time.

Besides, the girl in the other bed needed her attention.

Kanon hadn't really moved since Gumi guided her back to her room. Gumi had helped her lie down under the covers of the vacant bed, and she hadn't budged since. Her green eyes were dull and unfocused, to the point where Gumi had nearly thought she'd quietly died.

But at the sound of the gunshot, she jolted upright with bulging, teary eyes.

"Kanon?" Gumi approached her as quickly as she could manage. When she was closer, she could see Kanon's hands shudder violently. "Kanon, what--what is it? Do you need anything?"

Kanon wasn't looking at her. She started gasping for air, and her tears spilled over her paling face.

"T-try to breathe, okay?" Gumi pulled herself onto the bed to sit beside her. "You can do it. You're not in danger right now."

Maybe that wasn't entirely true, but it might as well have been in these circumstances.

"I'm the only one in the room with you," Gumi added. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

Kanon finally spoke, her voice cracked and dry and weak. "Then the gunshot...?"

"It was from down the hall. Yuuma said they were going to try to kill Akira. I think they did it."

"H-how do you know...someone else wasn't murdered...?"

"No one screamed."

Kanon hiccuped, and slowly looked up at Gumi, her eyes still wide and wet. She was able to hold her gaze as she spoke.

"Anon said our parents couldn't figure out which one of us was older."

Gumi blinked. She wasn't sure why Kanon was saying this now, but she figured she'd take it and maybe help distract her from her scary thoughts. "Did she?"

"She said that this morning. Before she took a shower. She was going to say they couldn't prove I'm older, but then she stopped and said they _can't_ prove I'm older."

Gumi didn't know what kind of response Kanon expected. She simply nodded and waited for her to continue.

"And sometimes she kind of stutters when she talks. So I didn't think it was weird. But then she died right after that." Kanon fell back onto the bed. "I never thought that would ever happen. I never thought either of us would die before we get to grow old. But she did. And I can't stop thinking about why she said that."

Gumi still didn't quite understand. "Why not?"

"We were with our parents. And we got separated. I was closer to this place, so I had to go back and get Anon and take her with me. But our parents weren't there. And she didn't even seem that upset. Like maybe she was in denial. And then she...made a point to use present tense when she brought them up. Like she was still trying to convince herself..."

"You don't...you don't _know_ if your parents are..."

"I don't know. But I didn't know Anon would die. And I can't have any hope anymore."

Kanon turned her head away from Gumi, looking toward the closed door.

"I don't want to live in a world without her. I want to sleep forever until I wake up and we're all safe at home."

Gumi couldn't expect much different. Maybe it was a little different because he wasn't her twin, but if she saw Ryuto get shot to death inches away from her, she had no idea how she would possibly be able to function.

"I know."

"No, you don't."

"I don't know how it feels. But I know what you feel, and why. That's what I mean."

A knock on the door startled them, and as fast as she could, Gumi planted her good foot and gingerly stepped her other foot on the ground, then shuffled toward the door.

"It's Luka," called the familiar voice from behind the door. "Can you open up?"

"Yeah, I--I'm coming!" Gumi reached the door, unlocked it, and pulled it open. From the small smile on Luka's face, she knew right away the mission had succeeded.

"I should probably take his body to one of the vacant rooms after I'm done with the lunch deliveries," Luka said. "Separate from...the others, of course. But I'm not sure my mind's fully caught up with what just happened. I don't know if I can handle another corpse right now."

"Do what you want." Gumi's hand trailed down to her stomach. "Do you, um...?"

"Of course I brought food for you." Luka held out two plastic bags for Gumi to take into her hands. "And Kanon, too. But don't force her to finish."

"I know," Gumi replied. "It's...things must be a nightmare right now."

She glanced briefly to the other side of the room. Kanon faced away from the door now. It was impossible to tell if she was listening.

"Thank you so much, Luka." Gumi felt a smile, a real one, show through her face. "You're so...so kind and brave."

Luka's face seemed to almost darken to a shade of pink, and she returned the smile. "Well, I just want to help people. I can't stay here, I need to check on everyone else. I think Yuuma is...having a hard time."

"Hm?"

"I can't really explain, but...don't worry. They'll be fine." Luka began to pull the door shut as she backed out of the doorway. "Take care of yourself, okay?"

"Mm-hm." Gumi pushed the door a bit to firmly shut it, turned the lock back to where it had been before, and returned to Kanon's bed.

Before Gumi even opened her mouth, Kanon, without moving a muscle, said, "I don't want to eat."

"I know, but, um..." Gumi opened up one of the bags, and saw an unopened box of potato stick snacks. "I think you should try to eat at least three times a day, even if you really don't want to."

"I don't want to eat," Kanon repeated.

Gumi pulled out the box, set it on the bed, and started opening it. "Okay, well, I'll eat these. And if you want, you can take as many as you want whenever you want."

Kanon murmured something that Gumi assumed was agreement.

It was refreshing, having an actual quantity of food to chew and swallow. Gumi sort of feared she'd let her hunger get the best of her and eat the whole box in a few seconds, leaving nothing for Kanon.

But after Gumi ate a few, she saw Kanon reach over and pull one out of the box in the corner of her eye, and they continued to be silent.

 _So many awful, awful things today..._ Gumi chewed thoughtfully, savoring the potato flavor. _But...being able to eat a good amount is really nice. Maybe we can finally just work together and get out of here safely..._

Even though she knew it was dangerous, she couldn't help feeling a little spark of hope.

* * *

Luka woke up to the familiar fire in the window, still as bright as when she'd fled here.

But there was a little hope this time. She felt no remorse for Akira or his death. With him dead, there was nothing standing in the way of actually cooperating with everyone, getting as properly nourished as possible, and finding a way to end this hell and get home safely.

Now that everyone had gotten a bit more food and rest, today Luka could help start figuring out a plan. For once, she could take a breath and smile, and maybe the flames would finally start to die out.

But of course, hope was dangerously fragile, and it was shattered by the ear-piercing scream from down the hall.


	8. The Right to Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: brief suicidal ideation/suicide mentions

No one could be safe if the cries were ignored.

Even if she ignored her heartbeat skyrocketing to violent speeds, Luka knew it couldn't mean anything good. That was just common sense. But common sense didn't answer the question of who was hurt. After all, everyone was in some kind of their own danger.

Gumi's infection was getting worse, despite Luka's best efforts to treat it. It was evidently getting painful. Coupled with the trauma of the riots and the murders the day before, it could all lead to something too much for Gumi to bear.

Kanon was suffering just as bad if not worse. To say she was distressed was an extreme understatement. Even if Kanon hadn't just had a nightmare or traumatic flashback, or if she wasn't in extreme pain from her gunshot wound, she was almost definitely contemplating suicide, and if she found a method that would work, her corpse could be waiting in Gumi's room.

Yuuma was very shaken up after they killed Akira, and while they hadn't said so directly, Luka was still worried they were also having suicidal thoughts. Not only that, but they still had the gun. It would be frighteningly easy for them to commit suicide. Then again, Luka hadn't heard a gunshot, but it was still reasonable that Yuuma was in enough despair to scream, or someone else was screaming for them.

Ruby was on the brink of starving to death before Daina was able to start refeeding her. Even so, Daina was still likely very paranoid about what could happen to Ruby, like the risk of refeeding syndrome or Ruby refusing to eat any more, plus Ruby still had that extra trauma to deal with.

Kiyoteru was just starting to recover from hunger, and he was absolutely terrified at this point. Luka figured the trauma of being trapped here and witnessing a murder was already destroying him. If he wasn't waking up from a horrific nightmare, then maybe he was having a panic attack, or someone or something had hurt him.

His motel room was right next to hers, so Luka wasted no time knocking on his door, and he wasted no time answering.

"I was just going to go get you," Kiyoteru said, fidgeting with his hands. "You heard that scream too, right? Who was it?"

"No idea," Luka answered. "I thought maybe it could be you, honestly."

"No, no, I'm okay. Just...a little scared."

Kiyoteru then pointed down the hall, and Luka followed his finger to see Gumi hurrying down the hall toward them, her left leg limping slightly along. 

"Are you both okay?" Gumi asked breathlessly as she slowed to a stop.

Luka nodded. "We're fine. That scream didn't come from us."

"Okay, okay. 'Cause I thought I heard that from way down the hall, around here somewhere." Gumi turned her head toward the door beside her and quickly knocked on it.

Luka recognized it as Ruby and Daina's room. She got closer to the door and put her ear against it. No movement approaching the door, but there was sound.

The sound of heavy breathing.

Luka's first thought was to grab the knob and turn it, and as instantly as she realized the door was probably locked, she noticed the knob turned all the way. Sure enough, she was able to open the door easily.

Daina and Ruby were both in bed. They didn't give any indication that they heard Luka come in. Daina's pale face was soaked with tears, gripping Ruby's sleeping form and choking out shuddered breaths.

Then Luka realized that Ruby wasn't moving at all.

"She ate." Daina abruptly looked right up at Luka. "She ate. I gave her the food and she ate. She didn't eat too much. I know that. It was only bread. She didn't eat any more of it. She's supposed to live."

Daina buried her face back into Ruby's body, her whole body continuing to violently tremble.

Something lightly touched Luka's hand. Gumi and Kiyoteru had followed her in. Kiyoteru stared with wide eyes at the women, and Gumi grasped Luka's hand. "Luka...she can't be dead, right? You gave her food, right?"

"Of course I did, but..." Luka's eyes wandered to the cup on the nightstand. It was full of water. "Daina?"

"What? What is it?" Daina mumbled. "Don't say it was all your fault. I don't want to hear anyone give me that shit, I just..."

"Daina, I just want to know...was Ruby drinking any water at all?"

"I don't know. I don't know. I gave her water, she's supposed to live. I don't...don't talk to me, don't talk to me."

If Ruby hadn't starved to death--and Luka figured it hadn't been long enough for that--she had to have died from dehydration. 

_If I told her to make Ruby drink water, would it have been different? If I gave Ruby water and made her drink it, if I asked about that, if I paid more attention..._

"Luka...?" Gumi tugged on her arm. "I-I think they...she wants to be alone with her. Let's come back later and help her."

Luka tightened her hand around Gumi's and took a step toward the door. "I don't want to carry anyone else's dead bodies. Let's talk in the lobby."

"The lobby? Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. It feels the least like death."

Kiyoteru had broken his stare, but his eyes were still wide when he looked at Luka. "Are you sure it's okay?"

"You don't have to come--"

"I don't want to be alone right now. But I'm worried everything is dangerous."

Luka gestured toward the door. "We won't let anyone else get killed. Let's just leave them alone for now and go to the lobby together, okay?"

With his agreement, Luka softly shut the door behind her, and followed Gumi and Kiyoteru down the hall. She immediately noticed a figure with black hair sitting against the wall, and they looked up as she approached.

"Who was it?" Yuuma asked.

Kiyoteru sat down next to Yuuma and tightened his arms around himself. "Ruby died."

"Ruby?" Yuuma's eyes widened, and they shifted in place. "But she got food, didn't she?"

"She wasn't drinking water." Luka lowered herself to the floor, her confession dragging her heart back down. "I shouldn't have been so neglectful."

Kiyoteru then reached over to tilt Luka's chin up, so she would look right at him. "Luka, don't do that. I think you feel responsible because you're the one who keeps a first aid kit with you. But you're not responsible for everyone. You're not the only one helping people."

"He's right," Gumi added, sitting down beside Luka. "It's not your fault Ruby died. A lot of bad things happened. You can't control all of it."

"Maybe." Luka gently pushed Kiyoteru's hand away. "But...it's not as if I have no control at all. We can find a way out of here without just waiting for everyone else to die."

Gumi was lightly stroking her fingers back and forth over the gauze around her leg. "Where are we going to go after that? Are we going to have to make it through the fire?"

Kiyoteru adjusted his glasses. "Longya might have something. If he can just...hide upstairs like nothing's wrong, and keep us prisoner here until we all die, he probably..."

"He's definitely the cause of all this," Yuuma muttered, hugging their legs. "If we can find a way to break in upstairs and kill him, then..."

 _"Kill him?"_ Gumi repeated. "Do you really think we can do that?"

"I still have the gun," Yuuma reminded her. "But it has just one bullet left. I'd have to be really careful with it."

_"What's this about a gun?"_

The new voice drove a deathly chill into all of them. The way they were sitting left a blind spot in the room that none of them could see without turning. They looked there and saw Longya. He hadn't made a sound, and now he was smiling coldly and proudly at them.

The gun was in his hand. Yuuma had probably left their door unlocked, since no one else would be a danger now if they took the gun. Except _him._ No one would've thought he would've actually snuck into anyone's room, but of course he would.

 _He can shoot us._ Luka grabbed Gumi's arm. _He can just kill off whoever he wants, right now. God, please, no one say anything. We can't die now, they can't die now._

"I'm not going to shoot you," Longya said with a slight smirk. "Yet. But, Yuuma--I left that note with the gun saying to use it wisely, didn't I?"

Yuuma didn't move a muscle.

"I'm glad you were able to stir the pot with it, so to speak. But I can't have you conspiring against me with it. That's not what it's for." Longya took strides across the room toward the stairs. "You can't cheat your way out. If you really think you can, you're not fit for survival."

With his ascent up the stairs went their chance of escape. There was no other way out of here as long as Longya was still alive, especially now that he had the one fighting chance they'd possessed.

Luka should have known better than to hope.

* * *

Gumi was hopeless now. She'd been hopeless before, but now more than ever, she could feel death just beginning to prick at her.

And Lily wasn't here. That was a good thing--she didn't want Lily to go through any of this. But God, she felt so alone.

She could feel that despair emanating from Kanon, too. They both lay awake, the room still illuminated in the night by the seemingly immortal fire, but they didn't say a word. There was nothing they could say to change anything.

But another sound came from behind her. Gumi's back was turned to the door, and the pain in her wound made it a bit unpleasant to turn over. She hadn't locked the door. Was that really a bad thing? Did it really make any difference?

The door opened, and footsteps approached behind her.

"Gumi?"

It was Luka's voice. Gumi took in a sharp inhale as she put in the effort to turn over in her bed. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought about it." Luka's voice was low and breathy, almost a whisper. She pushed the door shut, then climbed up to sit on the bed in the empty space. "I know it might be impossible, but I don't want to give up. I don't want to die unless I'm trying not to. And I don't want anyone else to die, either."

"Except Longya."

 _"Except_ Longya. But that's just part of it, isn't it? If we can't get rid of him, or at least incapacitate him for a while, we can't save ourselves and everyone else."

"I know." Gumi pushed herself up to sit next to Luka. "But we can't do that. None of us are gonna be strong enough to fight him, and now he has a gun. We can't just break into his room upstairs, either."

"I think we can." Luka start playing with her hair, her blue eyes still looking right at Gumi. "If we can find something to pick the lock, or if we can break down the door, then maybe..."

"I don't know how to pick a lock," Gumi told her. "And I don't think there's anything to pick a lock with, anyway. I think the door is too strong to break, too. The only way to get in is if he left his door open or unlocked, or if he dropped his keys. We'd have to trick him. I don't know if we can."

"Being rich and keeping a bunch of random people prisoner doesn't make you any more clever than anyone else." Luka shrugged. "It's definitely possible."

"But we'd have to be really lucky."

"We're still alive. _You're_ still alive. That's already lucky, isn't it?"

"I guess so." Gumi sighed. "But how do you think you could do it?"

"He can't be in two places at once," Luka reasoned. "And like he did with Kiyoteru, he'll go downstairs if someone's trying to escape and confront them. If I can do that, and distract him...do you think you can use stairs?"

"I can do anything I did before I got hurt," Gumi answered. "It's just really painful. But I can get upstairs. But then what? Won't you get shot?"

"I'll help."

Gumi flinched at the low voice, but quickly remembered Kanon was still awake in the room with them. She slowly sat up, holding a hand to her head.

"I'll help distract him," Kanon continued. "I'll get to the front door and lure him down. Then Luka can come and try to steal his keys. You'd have to be stealthy about it, but I think I can make a big enough fuss to keep his attention. Then Luka can get the keys to Gumi. And you'd have to be quick to get in the room. Then you can figure out how to get out."

"Kanon." Luka blinked her wide eyes at her. "You're already hurt from when...when Yuuma accidentally shot you. Are you sure--"

"I have nothing left to lose, Luka." Kanon narrowed her eyes. "If the fucker kills me, I don't care. At least while he's busy doing that, you have people you love to get back to."

Gumi wished Kanon hadn't been hurt too much to see her life still had value. But she trusted Luka. Luka was kind, and she could make sure Kanon wasn't hurt any more than before.

And now, Gumi had to trust that they could do this. There had to be one more miracle, the miracle that this would somehow work and they would be free, and she could kiss the face she'd been longing for ever since the fire started.

She didn't know if she'd survive, but she couldn't stand being without Lily for much longer. There was nothing left to do but to try.


	9. Out of the Frying Pan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> by the way sorry for making longya the antagonist. but that's what he gets for being canonically rich :/
> 
> TW: possible implication of attempted sexual assault

Gumi hated just being a bystander. It picked away at her heart to see Kanon struggling to balance herself--not only did she still have a bullet in her knee, but she also hadn't gotten out of bed for more than a full day--and insisting over and over to Gumi in whispers that she was fine with this, and she didn't want to stay behind in the bedroom.

At least Luka was here. Gumi trusted her. It was hard not to, given that Luka was the one that rescued her from that barricade and saved her life. Luka wouldn't let Kanon die, either.

"He wouldn't bring the gun downstairs," Luka reassured her. "Yuuma said there's only one bullet left, remember? Longya wouldn't waste it on Kanon. She's already injured, so to him, it would be good enough to beat her like he did Kiyoteru."

"But that's Longya's gun," Gumi pointed out. "It belongs to him. He must have extra ammo."

"This isn't America, Gumi. It's not easy to get your hands on a gun in the first place, so it's probably pretty hard for him to regularly load it with bullets. Especially now. He's been stuck here too, you know." Luka tapped her chin. "I can't rule out the possibility, but there's really nothing we can do about it. At least, that's what I think."

"I'm nervous."

Luka smiled sweetly at her. "I'm fucking horrified. But I care too much about people to not take the chance to do this."

Gumi stood in her place at the end of the hallway as Kanon stumbled over through the unfurnished lobby to the front doors. She fell to her knees once she got there, then grabbed a door handle to pull herself back up.

The door didn't lock from the outside. If Kanon wanted to, she could open the door right now and throw herself out into the fire. She could try to crawl through what was left of Yenyu, or she could bury herself in flames and wait to burn to death.

But she simply stood and fidgeted with the handle. Maybe she wanted to live, deep down. Or maybe she wanted to at least die helping someone.

Gumi looked to the stairs just as Longya appeared. She hugged the wall and quickly looked away as Luka stepped in front of her. It was a bit unfortunate they both had such brightly colored hair, but Longya's attention seemed to already be focused on Kanon anyway.

"What are you trying to do?" he asked, as he was still approaching.

Kanon lowered her hands from the door handle and abruptly turned her head to face him. "I'd kill you if I could."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"You don't need to know my answer, bastard."

Longya suddenly clenched a fist and swung toward her head. She fell back down to her knees just in time to avoid it. Just as Longya started to pull back his arm, she grabbed his wrist, prompting Luka to leave Gumi to run up to him.

Longya was too focused to notice Luka. He tried to reach to pry Kanon's hand off of him, but she gripped his other wrist. It looked like her hands were turning, so maybe she was trying to twist his wrists, but Longya seemed more annoyed than pained.

"What are you _doing?"_ he snarled. "You can't hurt me. Why do you think you can talk back?"

"My sister's fucking dead because of you." Kanon's shoulders trembled as she seemed to tighten her grip. "I don't care what you do to me. Just shoot me dead right now, I don't fucking care. All I want to do is know that I _tried_ to get rid of this worthless parasite."

Luka was able to approach Longya from behind, slip her hand into his back pocket, and yank it back out.

The keys in her hand gleamed in the everlasting fire. Luka threw them across the room, and they flew to the floor, then skidded to the stairs. She didn't bother looking at Gumi before instantly shoving herself into Longya and tackling him to the floor.

Good. Gumi didn't need a signal. She sprinted from the hall to the stairs, where the ring of keys waited on the carpet. Gritting her teeth through the sharp pain in her leg, she bent down to grab the keys before charging upstairs.

The keys were all labeled. _001, 002, 003..._ all of the room numbers, and then one with _OFFICE_ engraved onto it.

Of course, that was the one to insert into the doorknob and open up the way into Longya's quarters.

His room was more of a small apartment. Of course, he was able to live in luxury while everyone else was figuring out how to survive and escape. There was a television on the wall and a desk with a sleek computer, though neither of them seemed to have any power. There was no electricity here, after all. There was a kitchenette, with a fridge that also probably didn't have power but was likely stocked with Longya's own hoard of food supplies. On the bed--it seemed to be roughly queen-sized--there lay a smartphone connected to a portable charger. She approached it and nudged the power button on the phone, and the screen lit up.

So Longya had a working phone. That was useful to know, but the phone seemed to have a fingerprint lock, so the phone itself probably couldn't be used.

Finally, on the nightstand, behind the lamp...Gumi approached just to make sure. Luka had been right. Longya had left his gun behind in his room, right here.

"Well, well...good evening, Gumi."

Gumi couldn't just pick up the gun now. She had never used a gun in her life. If Longya stayed by the door, away from her, she could miss her shot. She had to wait for him to approach, but he couldn't know that she'd found it.

It was impossible to tell if he'd already figured it out. He smiled at her, his teeth shining with menace. She couldn't see any sign of Luka or Kanon nearby, but she didn't dare ask what he had done to them. If he was able to badly hurt them without his gun, then he could do anything to her.

"So you wanted to try to see what exactly I've done?" Longya crossed his arms. "You and your little friends must know by now. You may be weak, but you're not an imbecile. And while I have you here in my abode, I might as well explain myself."

He took a step closer, then briefly looked toward a window. The window was high enough for Gumi to almost be able to see a sliver of the outside above the fire, but she couldn't make it out clearly from here.

"Nothing like these riots have happened in recent times, have they?" Longya nodded to himself. "It seems the world has been so peaceful. It's what people like you would want, isn't it? Just to have no war or violence threatening you, so you don't have to think as hard about what living in this world is really about."

Gumi had no idea what he was trying to go on about. The world was never perfect. Yenyu was a nice, peaceful town, but it didn't encompass the entire world. Was Longya lying, or was he just ignorant?

"This poor little town was the worst of it. No conflict, no cares. It's become so pitifully mindless." Longya shrugged, a condescending twist in his smile. "And while their guards were down, look what they fell to in a matter of days."

The fire was still thick and bright even from this height. As bright as it had been from the start.

Finally, Gumi spoke, slowly and steadily. "You set the fires."

"Oh, Gumi, I did no such thing." Longya reached over to the phone on his bed and tugged it away from the portable charger. "My, ah, _friends_ on the other hand...they've been more than happy to continue that discord for the past few days. And no one can stop them. Everyone who thought they would have had a chance is nothing but a charred corpse now."

"Why." Gumi didn't want to ask any questions. She only wanted an answer. If she asked a question, she felt it would somehow chip away at what little defense she had.

"We need to know who is truly strong enough to survive in this world. Why not make it a fun game of elimination?" 

Longya was closer. Gumi could see the whites of his eyes now, and she could feel his breath brush against the top of her head.

"And you've done well, if I'm being honest. You're weak, timid and injured. I didn't think you would even make it to the motel. But you even lasted longer than Akira, and he was the only one actually _trying_ to win."

He placed a hand on her shoulder, just as her arm was reaching behind her for the gun.

"But you're still breaking the rules, you know. I believe I'll have to punish you, in way that you can show just how fit for survival you really are."

Gumi was afraid of him. The grip on her shoulder, the hushed sound of his breath, the shimmering whites of his eyes and his teeth twisted into a sadistic grin gleaming with the light of his fire, she had every reason to be afraid of it all. But it felt like nothing compared to the terror of what would happen if she didn't end this right now.

She held his gaze, colored with the hue of poison ivy, her hand tightening around the gun behind her. "I'm still stronger than you. You're nothing but a parasite. That's all you've ever been, and that's all you'll ever fucking be."

Without wasting another fraction of a second on any more words, she pointed the gun at his head and fired.


	10. And The Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING: if you're triggered by death you probably wouldnt be reading this anyway, but this chapter in particular also has some description of corpses which may be a bit disturbing

She just killed someone.

It didn't feel right, it didn't feel real. The man lying face-up, empty eyes wide open, mouth agape, a bloody hole right in his forehead...was he really dead? Of course he was, but she still couldn't believe that.

She killed him.

The weight of it started clouding her vision in darkness, clouding her head with a numb vertigo running through an incomprehensible stream of thoughts. Whatever had tethered her to consciousness was suddenly faded to a muffled static against her skin. The sounds that came were too obscured by the thundering of her pulse in her ears to be recognizable, and a trickling sense of rust began to fill her throat.

The empty gun clattered on the floor with her knees. It briefly cleared up the air in her ears, and the low voice that embraced her.

"...right here, Gumi, it'll be alright, you...over soon, just hold on a little longer and breathe, okay?"

A sharper voice cut through the thick fog filling her senses.

"Luka, do you think maybe you could go downstairs? Let everyone know? I don't...well, I don't think I could really do that..."

"That's fine. Just stay with Gumi, okay?"

"Of course. I don't want to be alone either."

Gumi let out a tight sigh and opened her eyes. It was still dull and blurry, but she could recognize the shape of Luka getting up and walking away, and Kanon's reddish-blonde hair beside her.

"I-I-I murdered him," Gumi sputtered, her throat tensing around each word. "I-I know he--I know that I was s-supposed to do it, but, but, but--"

"Shh, shh, you don't have to talk too much, okay?" A hand gently brushed over her back. "I...I know maybe we don't know each other really well, but, can I, um...can I hug you?"

Gumi nodded, and soon, chilled slender arms wrapped around her. It was a sudden sense of tranquility that she realized she'd been craving, and she pulled Kanon's skinny body into her arms.

"I just want to say..." Kanon sighed. "I just want to say thank you. For...you know..."

"I'm sorry, Kanon."

"You didn't do anything wrong."

Glimpses of people taking their final breaths and dropping dead flashed in a bright, blurry memory. Gumi felt her own breath hitch at the sight of Kanon holding her dying sister and being stained with the blood pouring out her neck...

"Hey, Kanon? Gumi?" 

Luka had returned, standing at the doorway and leaning against the wall. She waved her hand to them. "We're gonna...we're going to see what we can find and use in this room. Are you okay with that?"

Gumi gazed up at her. That was definitely a good idea, and probably necessary for them to escape safely, but she wasn't sure she could handle being around too many people right now. "I-I'll...could I wait downstairs? In the lobby?"

Kanon gently held to her arm. "I'll go with you. Okay?"

Gumi nodded, and Luka smiled warmly at them.

"Alright. Go ahead downstairs, and I'll tell everyone to come up."

It was hard to stand up straight again so soon, and Kanon surely still had trouble walking with her injured leg, but they tightly gripped each other's hands and walked out the door and down the stairs, away from the fresh scent of blood.

Of course, though, they were now just a little closer to the scent of rotting corpses. Gumi couldn't bring herself to get any closer to it by going near the hallway.

"Gumi?" Kanon gazed at Gumi as she sat down against the wall. "I'm...are you okay being alone for a little bit? I need to go take care of something really quick."

Gumi nodded. She closed her eyes as Kanon hurried off down the hall, and listened to the voices upstairs.

"Alright, everyone," Luka called from the top of the stairs. "Let's take a look around."

Gumi opened her eyes a bit as the rest of the survivors--Kiyoteru, Daina, and Yuuma--made their way from the hall toward the stairway. It was a soft, cruel reminder of how many people had ended up dying as a result of all this sadistic bullshit. She closed her eyes again.

_I could have done more. I could have done more than this. It's too late to fix it. Maybe if I wasn't so cowardly and sensitive, I could have stopped people like Longya and Akira sooner. I could have made sure Ruby was eating and drinking enough, I could have made sure Yuuma never got their gun stolen, I could have made sure Kanon was never left alone with Yohio...I could have done more. If I was more responsible and brave and smart, I could have done more._

At another sound of footsteps, Gumi opened her eyes to see Kanon approaching, holding a long bundle of blankets from the motel beds in her arms. She gently set it on the floor, a few feet away from Gumi. A faint, unpleasant scent that Gumi couldn't quite recognize came from the direction of the blankets. Gumi shifted her feet a little. "Is...something in there?"

"Anon."

That cold pang of sorrow pricked at Gumi's eyes. Now that she'd said that, she realized the bundle of blankets was about the same size as Kanon.

"I...she didn't deserve this." Kanon sat beside Gumi and hugged her knees. "She shouldn't...she should still be here. Nothing that led up to that, nothing that happened to lead to that was right. And now I can't stop thinking that if we just hadn't even ever gone to Yenyu..."

Gumi, though she felt selfish for it, couldn't help but wonder if Lily was feeling something similar right now.

"I just want to give her a proper burial," Kanon sighed. "That's all. She deserves that, at the very least. I don't want her to rot in this fucking prison motel." She lowered her head. "Fuck, if she just hadn't been there, she would've..."

_If Lily got caught in the car wreck, and I made it home, I wouldn't ever stop thinking about it._

"And what if you died instead?" Gumi asked, turning her gaze back to the floor. "Do you think she'd feel any different right now?"

"Of course not. I know. But that doesn't make me feel any better about being alive."

Gumi nodded, but she couldn't say she understood. She couldn't even begin to understand. If Kanon's parents really were dead, then she'd just lost her entire immediate family in the span of a few days. What if Lily and Ryuto both died, just moments after they were smiling and breathing and living?

Gumi couldn't bear to even imagine that world.

* * *

"His phone works." Luka woke up the screen of the phone lying near Longya's body. "But I can't use it. It has a fingerprint lock."

"A fingerprint lock?" Kiyoteru looked over her shoulder. "Well...you know, he only just, um...he only just passed away. And touch screens usually just respond to warm touch. It's not too late to..."

He cringed and averted his eyes, but Luka turned and patted his shoulder. "It's pretty...indecent, I know, but it's not as if he didn't deserve what happened to him."

Still, even at this point, she wasn't exactly used to touching corpses, especially those of men she hated. Kiyoteru was right, though, his body was still warm. She lifted his hand, already weighed with death, and pressed his finger to the lock screen.

Yuuma was busy helping Daina loot the refrigerator, but they turned to face Luka and Kiyoteru. "Hey, um, just a thought...do you think you would be able to disable the lock first? We don't know how long we need to look at it."

Luka nodded. "Good thinking." Fortunately, the interface was similar enough to what Luka was used to, and she could quickly navigate to the phone settings. She had to borrow Longya's hand one more time to confirm the disabling of the lock, but it was a quick process.

"First," said Luka as she got up to sit on the bed beside Kiyoteru, "I think I'll check his texts. See who he's in contact with. That could be some valuable info."

The texts contained what looked like a group chat. Upon opening it, Luka saw most of the texts Longya had sent hadn't been replied to. Maybe they were orders that he trusted his "friends" to follow without question. She scrolled up through the message history to a few days before and started reading.

**I'm at our motel in Yenyu. You can come and do the work now. Please make sure our motel stays relatively untouched by whatever fires may happen.**

**D, E, and H have already arrived. Don't worry about accidentally targeting them, they will stay well hidden protecting the motel from the fire.**

**question, sir.**

**would it be a safe bet to try to incite violence between townspeople?**

**If you can pull it off, I encourage it. The more chaos, the better results, and the better you'll blend in.**

**I'm going to be calling R once the guests arrive. We're going to discuss the game and how we will use the outcome. She'll also periodically reignite fires when necessary, until further notice.**

**It's possible that this won't work. But at the very least, we will be able to strike fear into the rest of the prefecture. Everything starts small. As long as the ones unfit to survive perish, we will have that small victory.**

"What a fuckin' edgelord," Luka muttered. Louder, she said to Kiyoteru, "It looks like everyone in this group text is involved. I'm guessing those letters are their code names. Whoever goes by R is responsible for keeping the fires going. That explains why they still haven't gone out."

Kiyoteru nodded. "Can you...tell them to stop?"

"Actually, I should be able to. It's usually easy to impersonate someone over text. As long as you can imitate their typing style. And he just types with proper grammar and punctuation, so it can't be too hard."

"They might have a codeword," Kiyoteru pointed out. "If you don't lie well enough, and you can't make them believe you're Longya, they won't listen."

"If it comes to that, I have access to everything in his phone," Luka assured him. "I guess looking through whatever his memos are is a good idea."

The memos app had a lot of irrelevant notes, but one stood out as important to read, as it was titled "Key Info:"

 _Threat level: emergency threat to our plans, scale 1-10. As of writing, 10 has never been used; only use in the most dire of circumstances, e.g. if several people involved_ _are dying or near death._

_Yuezheng Hotel: privately owned hotel in Sapporo. Our main headquarters for discussing events for taking property and populations. NOT for hostages._

_Yuezheng Motel: privately owned motels used for our various operations in smaller towns, sometimes used for hostages._

Luka navigated back to the text messages and carefully typed out:

**THREAT LEVEL 8. I cannot leave the motel at the moment, but everyone else must cease operations in Yenyu immediately and return to Sapporo. I will meet with you as soon as I can safely escape. I will explain in depth then. For now all I can say is that some data has been leaked. If you have time, erase traces of your personal activity.**

**The fires must also be ceased ASAP.**

Luka left the screen lit up as she placed the phone in the nightstand. "We'll have to wait a little bit."

"It's okay." Daina was stacking up cardboard boxes. "We should enough food to wait."

Her words were positive, but her face was still pale with bitter grief. Yuuma kept their gaze lowered and simply nodded in affirmation.

Luka wanted to try to cheer Daina up, but she knew, realistically, it was an impossible task. She walked over to lift one of the boxes. "I'm going to go downstairs and wait with Gumi and Kanon until it's safe to leave. You can do whatever you want, but...please be safe."

Daina and Yuuma didn't respond, but Kiyoteru lightly grabbed Luka's arm. "I'll go with you," he offered. "I'll take a box, too."

"Go ahead. I'm sure they'll appreciate your company, too."

* * *

Kanon almost wanted to unwrap those blankets. She almost wanted to be able to look at Anon again, just so she didn't feel so suddenly and horribly alone.

But in the room where Luka had taken her, the room where Anon had been laid to rest, there had still been enough fire in the windows to illumimate her face. It was already cold, dry and gray. The scent of decay was only being suppressed now by the blankets. Even as Kanon had been wrapping her up, she could feel the stiffness of the body.

And still, despite how much she'd already faded, Kanon could almost still see the smile she'd had on her face as she spoke to Kanon for the last time.

She let out a hollow and softly bitter laugh. "Even when she's shot to death right in front of me...she just _has_ to insist she's the older twin."

Gumi didn't respond. Kanon wasn't expecting her to. Gumi had already gone through so much shit in the past half hour alone. A conversation would be asking for far too much.

Luka and Kiyoteru had both come downstairs a few minutes ago. Other than Luka tentatively asking how Kanon and Gumi were doing, they hadn't said anything. They both sat by Gumi, a few feet away from Kanon. She didn't blame them. They were Gumi's friends. Kanon was just some broken kid they had to deal with.

She assumed Daina and Yuuma were still upstairs. Luka and Kiyoteru had each brought down a cardboard box. One was slightly opened up, just enough for Kanon to notice what looked like a loaf of bread inside.

"Is that his food?" Kanon asked. "Why did you take it?"

"Daina and Yuuma have the rest." Luka lifted her head up against the wall, only briefly glancing over to Kanon. "I think the fire should stop soon. I used Longya's phone to tell his friends to stop. But if not, we're prepared for the worst. At any rate, we shouldn't let it be wasted."

"Are you...gonna serve a meal right now, or something?"

"I don't think anybody's really in the mood to eat."

She certainly didn't disagree with that. Kanon wasn't sure if she'd ever really be able to properly eat again.

After another while, with no words and little thoughts, Daina and Yuuma descended the stairs, empty-handed.

"We decided to leave it upstairs for now," Yuuma explained. "We...don't really think it's necessary to have all of it right here, right now."

Daina nodded slightly, then turned her gaze right to Kanon, then the blankets.

"That's..." Kanon glanced at the blankets, then quickly looked away. "My sister. In the blankets."

Daina nodded again, and murmured something like "I'll be right back," before turning and walking a bit briskly down the hall.

"D-Daina!" Luka sat more upright, looking ready to run off at a moment's notice. "What are you doing?"

"I said I'll be right back," Daina called back to her, louder, but still hollow.

Kanon didn't ask, but she could probably guess the answer. She wasn't there when Ruby was found dead, but she assumed Luka or somebody else did the same thing as they did with Anon. Maybe even to the same room. Kanon wouldn't have noticed. All she'd wanted to look at and take was Anon.

Losing a spouse would probably be much more soul shattering than losing a sister, but Kanon imagined that Daina had a lot of the same feelings as she did.

In better circumstances, maybe she and Daina could be friends, but she didn't think she wanted any friends right now. Especially not with Kanon--a strong blade of regret bloomed in her memory, when both Ruby and Anon were alive, and Kanon had blamed Daina for trusting Akira with food rationing.

None of it really mattered, anyway. Kanon wished she could be happy if they were able to go back home, but everything was lost now.

Daina took a few minutes longer to return than Kanon expected. She was starting to think that something really awful might have happened when she glimpsed Daina approach from the hall with two bundles of blankets in her arms. She set them down on the floor and heavily exhaled.

Luka pointed over to them. "Are those...?"

"Ruby and Yohio."

Yohio...the boy who stole Yuuma's gun, the boy who had a sick instinct to eat another human being, the boy who murdered Anon...the boy Kanon murdered.

"I know..." Daina slid down against the wall to the floor and hugged her knees. "I know he...was about to try something terrible. I know Kanon had every right to kill him after what he did. Maybe he deserves to be dead, but...I don't feel right leaving a kid's body to rot in here. At least, not with the guy who killed my wife."

Kanon had no energy to argue against salvaging the body of Anon's murderer, and no one else had anything to say.

They waited quietly for what seemed like hours, but could very well have been anywhere from minutes to days. At the very least, enough time eventually passed for some of them to fall asleep under the glow of the fires, the glow that was finally beginning to fade from the windows. Luka offered everyone something to eat, but there was usually no one willing to accept. Only Kiyoteru did, really, and it was only after Luka encouraged him since he hadn't been eating properly for long.

Gumi had fallen asleep against the wall. When she awoke, it was to Luka gently shaking her body.

"Gumi...it's gone."

The light filling the room was different. It wasn't a flickering orange, but instead a pale shine. Gumi immediately sat up to look out the window, and couldn't help smiling.

She hadn't realized how much she'd missed seeing the blue sky.

Realistically, it wasn't a very beautiful sight. The long awaited sunshine was overseeing a town of charred buildings and piles of ash. Smoke still masked the air and flitted in the rays of light. If they stepped outside now, there was still a chance that they would suffocate on the lingering traces of the fire.

But Gumi still smiled, and she pulled Luka into a hug.

"Luka...thank you."

"Hm?"

"You helped everyone so much, and now...I'm still alive thanks to you."

"Gumi...you're a very important person." Luka tightened her arms around Gumi. "I should be thanking you. You have so much kindness and so much bravery, you were able to put an end to that hell." She pulled away, her smile glimmering in the new sunlight. "You said you have a wife...?"

"Oh...not yet, my fiancée. Lily. We're not married quite yet."

"Hmm...well, invite me to your wedding, won't you?"

Gumi nodded, and slid back to the floor. Others were in the room, preparing to finally leave the motel and Yenyu, while Yuuma was quietly talking on Longya's phone. It seemed they were calling an ambulance.

_Ah...I just want to run all the way back home, into Lily's arms...I don't know how much longer I can wait to see her..._

She closed her eyes again. Pain still spread in her injured leg, but she could breathe through it. Finally, she knew she would be okay.

Even so...what about everything and everyone that was lost? Gumi was incredibly lucky, but people like Kanon and Daina...would they cling to the sunshine and follow it home, or would they have no more will left to crawl out of their sorrow?

Was everything really alright now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the reason this took so long is bc i realized i uh. ..didn't write this story well? HUGE apologies to people with taste


	11. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: suicidal ideation, discussion of family/parent death, mentions of rape
> 
> sorry for any typos. this chapter is 6458 words long.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God..."

A panicked muttering was heard approaching the hospital room as Gumi opened her eyes. She hadn't been able to sleep, of course, but she had managed to at least rest her eyes for a couple hours. At the sound of that woman's voice, though, she jolted upright in her bed and stared at the door, waiting until it swung open.

"Gumi!" The woman she thought she'd never see again burst into the room and practically leaped over the side of the bed, wrapping her arms tightly as her breath spilled out in shuddered gasps. "God, you're alive, oh my God...I love you so much, I love you so, so much..."

"I love you too!" Gumi, treasuring the familiar scent of honey from Lily's body, immediately returned her embrace. "I love you so, so much, Lily..." But a presence was missing, and she had to pull away to glance around the room and ask, "Where's Ryuto?"

"He's at home." Lily rubbed her neck. "I was worried that...you'd be really, really hurt, and I didn't want him to see you like that if you were."

"It's okay..." Gumi smiled and gestured towards her leg, propped up in a gauze cast. "I didn't eat real well while I was locked up in there, and I got an infection in my leg. That's as bad as it is."

She didn't want to talk about all the violence and death she witnessed, or anything about what else Longya might have done to her...at least, not yet. If those dreadful memories stuck with her, Lily would have to know about them.

But not right now. Right now, she wanted to embrace her beloved.

"God, I wish I could just pick you up and take you home right now. We're so fucking lucky that you came out alive and okay. We're gonna celebrate when you get home, okay? A big party, a really good dinner, just for you."

That sounded so welcoming, but...Gumi really was lucky. She was luckier than some of the others. People who died in the motel, and their loved ones who now had to live with it. People who were missing pieces of their heart for the rest of their lives.

Even Longya, in a way...there had to be somebody who cared about him. Somebody who had to live with how horrible he became and how he stayed evil until his premature death. Gumi had no regrets about ending his life, of course. But...

"I mean, only if you want to," Lily said. "We don't _have_ to have anything big if it's too overwhelming or anything. It's totally your call."

"I'm..." Gumi grasped Lily's cold hands. "I don't know if it's something to celebrate. Other people lost people they loved, other people died horribly. It's selfish for me to be happy about being home when so many other people are so hurt..."

"Oh, Gumi, don't think like that!" Lily kissed her cheek. "I mean, I get it, I get it. You can't just not feel bad about it. But you're not celebrating what happened to them. You're celebrating that you're alive and back with people you love." She brushed fingers against Gumi's unkempt hair. "Obviously, like I said, we don't have to have a party or anything if you don't want to. But it's okay to be happy about being alive right now. You deserve it. You're a real, real good person, Gumi."

A good person...Gumi wasn't sure she could think that way about herself without feeling self-absorbed. She certainly couldn't have the courage to be _proud._ Maybe she did help people, but those people...they'd still need help right now.

What about people who weren't as lucky? Was there really nothing left she could do for them?

* * *

Luka wasn't severely injured, so she hadn't needed to stay at the hospital overnight, and she couldn't be more grateful. Not just because the hospital seemed like it would be a depressing, hopeless environment to be cooped up in, but because what Luka wanted more than anything right now was to reunite with her family.

As soon as she returned home, they let her know that the feeling was mutual, all crying her name and hugging her tightly.

"Everyone said you were all dead!" Miku sobbed into Luka's shirt. "Everyone said you were a goner! You...you...!"

Luka stroked Miku's back. She didn't really know what to say in this situation. She'd thought so much about escaping, she hadn't thought at all about what to do afterward.

Making an appointment with her therapist was definitely high on her to-do list, but that could wait until after the kids were done welcoming her home.

"Luka!" Rin wasn't crying nearly as hard as Miku, but she still sniffled through her words. "We were so scared. We were so, so scared."

Len said nothing, just quietly clinging to Luka with his eyes closed and his face in the side of her shirt. She could feel his tears soaking through, too.

"I was, too," Luka sighed, through a smile that she couldn't try to suppress. "I was so scared I'd never see any of you again. I missed you, I love you all so much."

Miku responded, but at this point she was sobbing uncontrollably and anything she said was incoherent. Luka looked to Rin, who had a hand on Miku's shoulder.

"She said she missed you too," Rin translated. "And so did I, I'm scared this is just a dream and when I wake up you'll be gone again..."

Luka felt a tugging on her shirt and looked over to Len, tears still glistening in his eyes. He cleared his throat and spoke in a nearly cracking voice. "Luka, they said...there were some people that died in there, didn't they? Did you see any of that...?"

Luka flinched at the reminder. Seeing Kanon shoot Yohio dead as her sister bled out in her arms, seeing Daina screaming and clutching Ruby's dead body, and even watching people she'd learned to hate so violently lie dead on the floor in front of her...

"Yeah. I did." Luka sighed and walked over to the couch to sit down. "I'm lucky that you were all here, safe and sound. Kaito's boyfriend was stuck there too, and he was lucky enough to make it out alive, but some people...lost people they really love. I feel guilty, being so lucky..."

At this point Miku was wailing, with Rin gently stroking her back.

"Sorry." Luka crossed her arms. "You're just kids. You shouldn't have to be thinking about that stuff. I'm just really happy that I'm safe back here with you."

Rin hugged her arms around Miku as she looked back to Luka. "You don't have to cook dinner tonight. Or forever, like ever again, we can do it. We can probably do it for you. You deserve a lotta rest."

If circumstances were a little less heavy, Luka might have chuckled a little. She was still able to smile at Rin. "You really don't have to cook for me. We can probably order out or something for dinner. But we don't have to figure that out right now."

Luka still couldn't quite believe she was home, with her family, safe and happy and free from whatever hell she'd just escaped from. She threw her arms around them all and hugged them all tighter.

"I really thought I might never see you again," she sighed, feeling tears begin to bubble up inside her. "I love you so much. I want you all to be safe and happy."

She wanted _everyone_ to be safe and happy, but...she couldn't think about that now. She wanted to be here, with her family, and they didn't need to see her be overcome with guilt. She was here to keep _them_ safe and happy, especially now after they'd been without her and full of uncertainty.

* * *

Kiyoteru had scary dreams fairly often already. He was fortunate to be living with Kaito, who knew just how to soothe him and make him feel safe whenever he jolted awake in the middle of the night. But now that he'd experienced such traumatic things in Yuezheng Motel, he couldn't help but feel guilty for making Kaito comfort him nearly every single night.

Kaito was a kind, optimistic person. He was very patient with Kiyoteru, very willing to help him recover from his nightmares, but he was also quite sensitive and faint-hearted. It was bad enough he had to listen to Kiyoteru spout horrified nonsense when he had his nightmares. Kiyoteru didn't want to hurt him even more by telling him the details of what he'd actually experienced.

Kaito did eventually catch on, of course, and confronted him during daytime.

"I know you're hiding stuff." He didn't look up from his bowl of miso soup. "I know you're not telling me anything that happened."

Kiyoteru wasn't good at fibbing or bluffing, so he didn't dare try. He simply asked, "Why do you say that?"

"I was with Meiko the other day and we talked to Luka." Kaito swirled his chopsticks in the bowl of soup. "She told us that a lot of really horrible shit happened."

Kiyoteru wasn't sure he wanted a reminder, but he was morbidly curious about how much Kaito knew. "What did she say?"

"Well, I know Yuezheng Longya assaulted you in the middle of the night. And she said he threatened you a couple times."

Kiyoteru grimaced. He was lucky he'd been too dazed to fully remember, but the terror and shame he'd felt burning through him was still fresh.

"And you'd been close to starving," Kaito added. "Is _that_ why you've been eating less?"

Kiyoteru had already had some microwaved noodles, and he was fully aware that was not good enough nutrition. He usually had more complete lunches, but he was less motivated to put the time into them, and he was too ashamed to ask Kaito to do it for him. Now that Kaito mentioned it, though, it was possible that he subconsciously feared eating much more than his body was used to.

"There was a woman who ended up starving," Kiyoteru mentioned, lowering his head to the table. "Well...she almost starved to death."

"Ruby?" Kaito asked, glancing up. "I think...I don't know if she's right, but she thinks that someone was threatening to rape her if she didn't eat less..."

Kiyoteru flinched, his shoulders nudging his glasses down his nose a bit. "I-I didn't know that. I knew Akira was being awful to her, but I didn't know he said something that horrible..."

"Well, maybe he didn't. It's just what Luka said, I don't know if it's true." Kaito sighed and looked away again. "Kiyo...did he threaten to rape you, too?"

"No."

"Oh, thank Christ. I don't want anyone to even _think_ about doing that to you." Kaito twirled his sticks around in his soup again. "But if anything happened to you, and that's why you have nightmares...I don't want you to never talk about it."

Kiyoteru definitely couldn't lie and say, no, nothing especially bad happened to him. It wasn't as bad as anyone else, but it still gave him nightmares. He shook his head. "I don't want you to feel that scared."

Kaito sat up and reached over to readjust Kiyoteru's glasses. "Why do you worry about that? Telling me about it isn't the same as experiencing it."

"Well..." Kiyoteru grasped Kaito's hand. "You're pretty empathetic. And you're easily frightened."

"Do you not trust me?"

Kiyoteru flinched away, feeling his eyes instinctively widen. "No! No, no, of course I trust you, I love you! I'm just afraid of making you as scared as I get at night."

"I know that." Kaito rubbed his neck. "But when you bottle up your feelings and think I can't handle knowing what you need to talk about, it makes me feel like you don't trust me."

"I..." Kiyoteru wasn't any less sensitive than Kaito. He felt a knot in his throat, and tried to keep his voice steady--he didn't want Kaito to think his honesty was making him cry. "I'm sorry, I love you. It's not your fault I'm so scared of everything."

"It's okay. I love you too." Kaito kissed his cheek. "If it makes you too upset to talk about, you don't have to, but...please trust me, okay? If I know more about what happened, I might be better at helping you when you have nightmares. And maybe you'll have less nightmares."

Kiyoteru nodded, and took a few deep breaths as Kaito returned to his soup and began to eat. He didn't say anything as Kiyoteru cautiously recounted the events in the motel. He hadn't witnessed everything, and he didn't remember everything, but that was fine. Kaito didn't need or want to know all the details. Somehow, it lifted some weight off of Kiyoteru's heart just to talk about some of the worst things he experienced--his assault, his hunger, and the deaths he witnessed.

When it was over, Kaito had finished eating. They quietly embraced each other for a long time, wordlessly grateful that Kiyoteru was in a safe place now with a safe person, and that maybe tonight, with his heart feeling lighter, Kiyoteru could finally get a full night's rest.

* * *

When Yuuma returned home from their fortunately short hospital stay, their best friend and roommate Mizki was, understandably, overjoyed.

Yuuma expected all the tight hugs and rambling from Mizki about how they'd been _so_ worried about them ever since the riots and they heard about the awful things that happened and they'd hardly gotten any sleep waiting for them and when they did they had nightmares that they'd never come back and they _really_ wanted to visit them in the hospital but they couldn't ever find a bus that could take them there during visiting hours and now they were _home_ and they were _safe!_ Yuuma expected all that, but they didn't expect Mizki to go as far as to present a big chocolate cake.

"Well, I bought it for my birthday," Mizki explained, keeping their arms tight around Yuuma. "And also to make myself feel better, because I get lonely when I'm home alone. But then I couldn't even eat it 'cause I kept thinking about how you weren't here to eat it with me. But now you are! And we can eat it together!"

Yuuma smiled and ruffled Mizki's hair. "That sounds great, but...shouldn't we have dinner first? I'm kind of...not...I haven't gotten the best nourishment lately."

"Oh, oh, yes, of course!" Mizki released them and glanced at the fridge, keeping their hands raised. "What do you want me to cook, though?"

Yuuma did not have very high standards, but they didn't want to leave Mizki with absolutely no ideas to work with. They fidgeted with their hands as they pondered. Maybe Mizki would want to celebrate their reunion with a big dinner, but even after eating safe rations at the hospital, Yuuma was still too nervous to eat too much at once. A simple bowl of eggs, beef and onions would be safe and satisfying.

"Could we just have gyudon?" Yuuma suggested. "I can help you make it."

"Oh, no you won't!" Mizki stood on their toes and patted Yuuma's head. "You relax! I know you probably went through a lot these past few days. You can talk about it if you want, while I'm cooking. I don't mind."

Mizki's warm and welcoming demeanor had completely distracted Yuuma from how fucked up their recent experience was. Not that Yuuma minded, of course. They wouldn't be best friends and roommates if Yuuma didn't cherish Mizki's care and optimism.

"Well, I'm not going to try to traumatize you while you're making dinner," Yuuma said, taking a seat at the table. "I guess, um...can you put down those eggs on the counter?"

Mizki nodded and dutifully set the carton of eggs they were holding on the counter. "Mm-hm?"

"I guess I should let you know that I shot someone."

 _"Whah!?"_ Mizki yelped and flinched back, thankfully not nudging the carton of eggs too hard. "With a _gun?"_

"Well...I shot two people, actually. One of them was an accident. I found the gun earlier, I panicked and I accidentally shot her in the leg. The other one died from it, I shot him in the head."

Mizki's eyes bulged and they clasped their hands tightly. "That guy was...it was self-defense, wasn't it?"

"Yeah." Yuuma paused. "Well, not _self-_ defense, it was...I shot him because he was trying to kill someone innocent. A few innocent people, really, but at that moment he was trying to strangle a woman."

Mizki gulped and nodded. "And...where's the gun now? Do you still have it?"

"No, I gave it to someone else. The person who shot Yuezheng Longya."

"Gumi...so what did _she_ do with it?"

"I don't...I don't know, I don't remember. It was the last bullet anyway. She probably wouldn't have kept the gun." Yuuma stood up from the chair. "Sorry for scaring you. Are you sure you don't need help with dinner?"

"No, no, sit down, it shouldn't take long." Mizki turned back to the eggs and started prepping them. "Who was the man you killed? Do we know him?"

"No, there wasn't anyone we knew in the hotel with me." Yuuma slowly sat back down. "His name was Akira. I forget his family name. The woman he tried to strangle was Daina. I think she went in there to try to kill _him,_ actually, because he was hurting her wife. Her wife ended up dying."

"Oh, poor Daina," Mizki sighed, setting a frying pan on the stove. "I hope she...gets better, you know? I can't imagine how awful that must be for her."

"I hope so too. I don't know where she is." Yuuma scratched their neck. "I think she mentioned she had a close friend who lives here. So I hope whoever that is, they might be able to help her."

"Mm-hmm."

They were mostly quiet until the gyudon was finished and served. As they ate, Yuuma spoke up again. "I don't think I'm going to be arrested, if you're worried about that."

"Well, I know you'd probably be found innocent, because of the justified homicide defense." Mizki slipped a bite of beef into their mouth and quickly swallowed. "But I hope you don't get taken to a detention center or something. I've had enough of being home alone and wondering if you're ever going to come back."

"I know, I know." Yuuma sighed and shook their head, feeling a bittersweet smile. "I don't think I'll want to go out anywhere anytime soon. I hope everyone else that survived is safe, I definitely didn't go through the worst of it."

"Well, don't forget to take care of yourself now that you're safe at home, okay?" Mizki smiled. "And you know I'm always here for you no matter what."

"I know. I'm here for you too, Mizki." Yuuma took another bite--after what they'd been through, this fifteen-minute stew made by their best friend tasted like heaven. _I want to always be here. I don't ever want to leave again..._

* * *

"Do you need anything, Daina?"

Daina didn't even bother to look at him. She curled in to herself and mumbled something with a tightly closed mouth.

"Okay." Daina heard his footsteps come closer to her anyway. "I made you some cookies. You can eat them if you want. Here's some milk too. I'll leave them here for you."

Daina mumbled a "thanks" as the footsteps returned to the door and out of her room. She really didn't want to come off as unappreciative of Dex--he'd dropped everything to see her and take care of her while she was recovering from the motel--but it was hard to have any enthusiasm when Ruby was gone forever.

Dex knew everything. When he met with her in the hospital, she cried to him about everything that happened. Daina really didn't like being so weak and helpless, but she and Dex were childhood friends, and she could trust him to know how to respond to any of her feelings. He'd been a friend of Ruby's, too. That day, he cried with her, but now, he didn't seem nearly as broken as she was. He was functioning well enough to look after her and bake cookies, at least.

Of course, it wasn't as hard on him anyway, but Daina did envy his resilience.

It was impossible to stop thinking "what if"--what if Daina had gotten Akira killed sooner, what if she kept Ruby away from him, what if she never left Ruby's side, what if she was more adamant about making her eat and drink, what if she never trusted anyone else and stayed shut in a room with Ruby the whole time until it was over?

Then Ruby would be here, and Daina would be in her warm embrace, making her smile, seeing her red eyes twinkling with a rainbow of life.

The door opened again, and Dex returned to sit on the edge of the bed. Daina glanced up at him for just a second, hoping that was enough to greet him. She'd ask what he wanted now, but she didn't have the energy to express anything at all.

Dex was a good friend, anyway. He wouldn't ever force her to speak about any feelings. It was okay if he just talked about himself.

"I know this is...you're probably sick of hearing this. But I'm really sorry about everything."

Daina curled up tighter and muttered, "Not your fault."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I just...God, it's so fucked up." Dex sighed and dropped his face into his hands. "I keep thinking I should've gone with you. I know that would've been intrusive, but I'd rather have that then..."

"Where would that leave you, though?" Daina rolled onto her back to look more directly at him. "What if she got harassed and threatened and manipulated into starving and dehydrating to death anyway? You'd see her dead body, too."

Daina didn't have any energy left to cry. She'd cried all of yesterday, and the day before, and whatever time passed before then. The tears had all gushed out and now her heart was too empty to leave any real weight on her words, but she spoke anyway, the thoughts that had driven her to constant tears.

"She's supposed to be here. If I was better, she'd still be here."

Dex very gently touched her shoulder. "I...I know you feel that way, and it's really hard not to blame anyone else, but...I really don't think it's your fault, Daina."

"You shouldn't try to make me feel better about it." Daina turned her head away again. "I wish I died in the motel, too. Then it--"

 _"Don't say that!"_ Dex bristled for a second, then sighed and spoke in a quieter, shakier voice. "Please don't talk like that, you know Ruby wouldn't want that, either."

"Yeah, but...she wouldn't want me to live like this either, would she?" Daina brushed a nearly numb finger against the bedsheets. "I never wanted to live in a world without her. Especially with how much longer I'd have to live now. I know you wouldn't want me to do it, I know _she_ wouldn't want me to do it, but the only way I could stop living like this is if I stopped living at all."

Dex covered his face again. Daina knew he didn't want to hear any of this, but she couldn't feel any guilt. How long until she stopped feeling anything at all?

Dex sighed and shook his head, still obscured by his hands. "I wish I knew how you felt."

"I'm glad you don't." As empty as Daina felt, she believed that, at least. "I'm glad you weren't with us. It was enough hell without watching one more person I care about suffer."

Dex lowered his hands again and sighed through a bittersweet smile. "Well, I'm with you now, so...I hope I can help make living a little easier. And I'll stay here forever if I have to, if it means I can help you be happy again."

Daina was jealous of his optimism, but she was still grateful to him. She wished she could at least force a smile, just for him, but for now, all she could do is turn back over in bed and hear Dex's footsteps leave the room.

It was very wishful thinking, but maybe eventually, with Dex's help, Daina could find a real reason to smile at her friend again. She could try to stay alive in this nightmare of a world without Ruby just for that.

* * *

Oliver didn't leave his room anymore. In any other situation, his parents would have tried to coax him out, but they weren't faring any better than he was now.

After all, they lost a son. Maybe that was even worse than losing a big brother.

Oliver shook his head and buried his face back into his pillow. It still didn't quite feel real. Just last week, he was alive, and so was his friend Sonika. It was a completely normal day when he left the house with his suitcase.

"Be back in a week!" he'd cheerfully called to his family, and of course he would be back, why wouldn't he be?

Then a few days later, the Yenyu riots started, and they heard nothing from or about Yohio. All they learned was that Sonika was found dead in the city. And when the riots ended and the survivors escaped the motel they were trapped in, they had Yohio's corpse.

It couldn't be real. Oliver couldn't forget the news story they published soon afterward.

_According to an anonymous witness who was among the Yenyu survivors, the seventeen-year-old had attempted to shoot and kill eighteen-year-old Kanon Haruki with the intent of cannibalizing her afterward. Her twin sister, Anon Haruki, sacrificed herself to take the bullet and die instead. Immediately after, Kanon Haruki took the gun and fatally shot Yohio Rehn. Haruki may be investigated, but it is likely she will be acquitted under justified self-defense._

It couldn't be real. Yohio would never want to hurt someone like that, would he? He would never try to kill someone like that, especially not with a gun of all things, especially not to try and _eat_ them.

He almost wanted to try to find Kanon Haruki and ask her, because she was possibly the only one who knew the truth, but knowing that she shot his brother dead...Oliver didn't think he could ever bring himself to speak with her. He didn't know if he hated her, or feared her, or pitied her, but he couldn't ever meet her.

Did Yohio ever talk about Oliver? Did anyone know that someone's older brother was shot dead in that motel? Did Oliver _want_ that to be the case, so Kanon knew the true consequences of what she'd done, or did he want Kanon to keep living without that extra burden? After all, if Yohio really did accidentally kill Kanon's sister...

Maybe he and Kanon had that in common, at least. Maybe Kanon was better at dealing with it since she was older. All of Oliver's friends were younger than him, and they didn't know what it was like to lose a big brother, especially not like this. Maybe if it were anyone else who killed Yohio, Kanon could help Oliver understand how to move on from this.

But things were like this, so he didn't have anyone.

He sighed and sat up to look out his bedroom window. It was a bright, sunny day. The sun already hurt his eyes, but the fact that it seemed so bright and warm out on a day like this made him even more bitter about the sunlight. He knew Yohio would've enjoyed it, though.

"Yohio..." He knew Yohio wouldn't ever hear him, but he hoped, maybe in vain, that he would at least know what Oliver felt. "I don't know what really happened, or what you did, and maybe you did something really, really bad that no one would ever forgive you for, but...I don't hate you. I forgive you, whatever you did. I hope you're safer now."

* * *

Kanon had no family to return to.

Luka had helped get her to the hospital and get the treatment she needed for her infected leg, as well as get checked up to make sure she hadn't contracted any illnesses from the motel, but then had to leave her alone. Kanon had needed to get surgery done to get the bullet out of her leg. When she woke up, for a second she expected to meet her family, then she remembered.

It didn't feel real. It wasn't too long ago that they were all at home together. Anon was alive and happy, and her parents were alive and happy, and they all went on a trip to Yenyu. Maybe if Kanon had done something differently, they would've escaped the city before their parents had a chance to die in the fires.

And Anon had seen it, didn't she? She saw it and said nothing. Maybe she'd refused to believe it. Kanon wished she could just convince herself to think her family was alive, maybe convince herself to see and hear them right now, but she had no willpower left to do anything at all.

It was up to Gumi again to help her. Kanon tried to convince her not to waste any more time on her, but Gumi was persistent. Once Kanon was discharged from the hospital, Gumi insisted on bringing her to her house and keeping her there with her own family.

"Ryuto, this is Kanon. She's going to be living with us for a while."

Kanon was barely aware enough of her surroundings to see the little green-haired boy grin and wave at her. If she had the energy, she would have returned the favor, but she couldn't even bring herself to fake a smile.

What a lucky girl Gumi was. She was relatively unharmed from the motel, and she still had her family alive and well. It was wrong to be bitter about it, and Kanon really didn't want to trouble a little kid with her own suffering, but she really couldn't do anything about any of these feelings.

Gumi led Kanon to the extra bedroom. It was pretty barren, just a bed, nightstand and dresser. They didn't really have many guests, so they never felt the need to make it look super nice.

Of course, Kanon didn't care. She just wanted to sleep.

The others didn't bother her at all. Gumi would bring her some meals on plates and ask how she was holding up, and usually didn't press for any more when Kanon didn't respond. Lily would come in once in a while, too, and encourage her to at least take a shower, and sometimes Kanon would agree to it just to feel something a little different.

Ryuto didn't come see her at all. Kanon figured that Gumi and Lily told him not to bother her. Gumi was very considerate like that, and it probably extended to her fiancée, too. Kanon almost forgot he was in the house at all.

One night, though, the door creaked open, letting in light from the hallway, and someone very small tiptoed into the room toward Kanon, lying awake in bed as usual.

His green eyes shined in the hallway light that he let in, yet a shadow still curtained the pupils as he spoke quietly.

"Do you miss your family?"

Kanon squinted her eyes. She would have liked to be more gentle, but she was too tired to have any sensitivity, so she bluntly muttered, "Why would you ask anyone that?"

"I just wanna know if that's why you're sad. 'Cause that makes sense." Ryuto lowered himself to his knees to be closer to eye level with Kanon. "My parents are dead, too."

"Oh..." It seemed obvious now that he actually mentioned it. Little kids don't usually move out with their older siblings. Of course it was something to do with their parents. "How...old are you?"

"I'm ten. I was a baby when my parents died, but I still remember them a little bit." Ryuto tilted his head slightly. "How old are _you?"_

"Eighteen."

"So you know more than me about parents, then."

Kanon shrugged. "At least you have your sister."

Ryuto didn't react for a few moments. Then, without warning, he pulled himself up onto the bed, over where Kanon's legs were lying, and he sat by her feet.

Kanon didn't have any energy to object.

"Was your sister older than you?"

"Twins."

"Ohhh, you're a twin?"

Kanon lightly touched her hair, fallen beside her on her bed. "I don't know. There's always supposed to be two of twins. You've never met a single twin before. So...I _was_ a twin."

Ryuto crossed his legs. "Well, your twin is still here. Her spirit watches over you, so--"

"They feed you that bullshit when your parents died?"

Ryuto gasped quietly, and loosely placed his hands over his ears.

Kanon sighed. _Maybe I shouldn't...talk like that to a little kid. It's not his fault that this is how he sees it._ "Sorry, sorry. You're...not wrong. I'm not mad at you."

"I'm not allowed to hear cuss words," he replied quietly.

"Oh. Sorry."

"S'okay."

Kanon's chest tightened a bit with something like frustrated anticipation the longer the silence went on. Maybe Ryuto would run off and tell on Kanon for saying bad words, or he was waiting to do something like scare her or hug her. He seemed like that kind of kid, immature and excitable and wanting to get reactions out of people. But after a few seconds, he spoke quietly again.

"You can borrow _my_ sister if you want. She's only a year older than you, so it's close enough to a twin."

It was a nice gesture, but pretty insensitive. Kanon didn't take any offense, though. "Gumi's nice, and she's helped me a lot, but...she's not a replacement. She can't just fill in the space Anon left, she's a different person."

"Oh, okay. I'm sorry."

"It's fine." Kanon lifted her head a little. "You're lucky to still have a family and a nice home. You're pretty generous to wanna share that with people. You're a lot like your sister."

Ryuto smiled. "Thanks!"

Kanon wished she could smile back, but she probably didn't need to. It was nice enough that she could make this kid happy despite the state she was in. "I don't wanna borrow your sister, but...having a little brother might be nice. I've never had one before."

"Are you talking about me?" Ryuto's eyes, already big with wonder, grew even wider. "I already have two big sisters, but I guess if Gumi and Lily are okay with it, I could have another one...but you don't even know my favorite color, are you sure?"

Kanon squinted in the dark at the boy's green hair, green eyes, and green pajamas. "Is it green?"

"Whoa! You _do_ know!" Ryuto finally crawled over and hugged Kanon's shoulders. "I guess you _can_ be a big sister!"

Maybe he _was_ annoying and immature and noisy...and maybe that was just what Kanon was missing. Anon was irreplaceable, and it still felt so hollow having both her and their parents gone forever, but a family of this much love and joy...it could be something that kept her from being so lonely, and maybe even help her enjoy life again.

"I guess so," Kanon sighed. "But I'm fine sleeping on my own. You should go back to your own room."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. Good night, Ryuto."

"Good night, sis!"

He was really persistent about Kanon being a new family member, wasn't he? Somehow, it felt kind of nice to be so readily welcomed like that. Maybe Kanon wouldn't be without a family for too much longer.

And at least now...at least Anon wasn't as lonely as she was right now.

* * *

Yuezheng Longya was dead.

She didn't feel any grief or anger or sadness, just stoic bitterness. That man was an egotistical fool, and though he had helped her in many, many ways, she didn't feel any remorse when the news broke out in their ring.

At first, they called for his little sister, Ling, to replace him, not only due to the familial relationship, but because she had inherited some of Longya's riches. And she refused, of course. Ling was still a kid, a teenager, and on top of that, she hadn't even been on speaking terms with her brother, likely due to his selfish misanthropic ideologies. A morally correct choice for sure, and one that this woman agreed with, but one that would certainly result in an untimely demise.

She had no plans to hurt Ling, though. She wasn't as petty as Longya, and she had nothing to fear from that young girl, either. When it was clear that Ling would not take Longya's position, the responsibilities fell to her, one of Longya's youngest and most trusted partners.

Considering that the survivors of Yenyu had hacked into his phone, it was unlikely they would able to pull any other stunt like that with the Yuezheng Motel locations. It seemed no one had identified most of Longya's partners, but it was still extremely high risk to do any of their usual business in this part of Japan. Even Japan as a whole was dangerous. One too many missteps in this country would make the entire ring fall apart, imprisoned at best and publicly executed at worst.

That just added to her bitterness. If Longya had anything but his own philosophy in mind, if he actually did some of that work for the people in his ring, it wouldn't be like this. She would be different. She had different values and different priorities, and she would know exactly how to extort the civilians for the benefit of the ring, without being so enveloped in vanity. There would be no self-serving empty promises from her.

She smiled to herself as she switched on her phone. The messaging group with her fellow members was already open, and she typed her first message as leader.

**hello, everyone. this is R.**

**while the hotel's still standing, let's meet there tonight. i have a plan to discuss that could finally give us all what we've been wanting.**


End file.
